


Dragonfly

by jane_x80



Category: Gilmore Girls, NCIS
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, Hurt/Comfort, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-23 21:29:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 22,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16626737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jane_x80/pseuds/jane_x80
Summary: When Lorelai finds an injured man in a room at the Dragonfly, she feels compelled to help him even though he doesn't even tell her his real name. Even if it means she is endangering herself. He is mysterious and intriguing, handsome and witty and he can keep up with her and banter with her. She knows that it's not possible that he's a bad guy even though he's armed. She'll be safe with him. Right?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Red_Pink_Dots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Pink_Dots/gifts).



> This story is an extremely belated birthday gift for ma tres chere amie, my Elton, [Red_Pink_Dots](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Pink_Dots/pseuds/Red_Pink_Dots) who even made the fabulous artwork as a prompt. Seriously, I love the artwork. So amazing. I felt bad that I had to sit on these pieces until the story was finally done! RPD, this story is especially for you. I hope you like how Tony and Lorelai turn out as a couple. I know I had fun discussing the possibilities of how their paths might cross!
> 
> This is also my first het main pairing story on ao3.
> 
> The song I listened to obsessively and excessively while writing this story was (of course) the Bangles' [Eternal Flame](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjr6_g1rtRM).
> 
> I am so sorry that it took so long for me to finish this story but the muse had so been weird this year, RPD. Here's your story, finally. At least it's not your next birthday already ;) <3 <3 <3

**Prologue**

[](https://i.imgur.com/sn2geME.png)

Tony was exhausted and in pain. Everything had gone FUBAR when the arms dealer at the New London Submarine Base unfortunately turned out to have people working for him who recognized him to be NCIS. Tony had showed up to the sell and the buyer had a former Marine in his employ accompanying him, a Marine that Tony and the MCRT had busted a couple of years ago, for selling decommissioned weapons. The man pegged him as NCIS and immediately raised the alarm.

Everything went to hell in a ridiculously quick and fiery handbasket and Tony didn’t even have time to lament it, too busy trying to get the hell out of dodge. This was after two long months working undercover as a corrupt Naval master-at-arms working his way up to find the source of the weapons that were being sold off that were slated to be decommissioned and supposed to be destroyed. He’d firmly established himself within the leadership of the group, and the plan was to identify their main buyer before the op was concluded, so they would be able to round up the whole supply chain from those complicit in the selling to the main buyers, to prevent them from looking for a new source of illegal arms. But yeah, then the whole fucking thing mushroom clouded on him and now there was a hail of bullets, most of which were aimed at him.

Tony managed to escape, running like hell into one of the jeeps and gunning the engine, returning fire as best he could. He was wearing a wire, so Gibbs definitely knew what the hell had gone down, especially since he was now verbally summarizing what had happened, describing the buyer – who he didn’t recognize – and a couple of his henchmen, and pulling the name of the guy who’d recognized him out of his memory, speaking as clearly and quickly as he could because he could already feel the adrenalin receding from his bloodstream, and his head was starting to buzz and energy drained from him quicker than he would like it to.

He drove to the nearest town – Groton, Connecticut – and abandoned the jeep near a wooded area. He turned his undercover phone off and took the battery out, and then destroyed the sim card. He didn’t need the buyer to track him down using his cell phone. And then he hiked a mile before he found a car he could boost. But first he switched the license plate with another randomly parked car in that parking lot, broke into and hotwired the car and made his way north. It was the middle of the night and there were no phone booths anywhere, so he couldn’t call Gibbs. He was no doubt out of the range of the wire by now, but the plan was to head towards Hartford. That had been their backup plan. Gibbs had a safe house waiting for him in Hartford, if he could only just get there. Tony hadn’t had backup for the buy because Groton was tiny and new people on the sub base would have been noticed, and besides, he was only supposed to get eyes on the buyer, not apprehend him. He was only supposed to be gathering information so they could plan an organized take down. So he was alone until he could get to the safe house.

And normally, the drive to Hartford from Groton would only be forty five minutes to an hour in good traffic, and since it was the middle of the night, there wasn’t that much traffic on the interstate. But he could feel blood dripping down his side. He’d taken a bullet – hell he was lucky that it was just the one bullet, but right now it was enough to make his hands shake and he was doing his best to stay conscious. He had to get off the road before he could crash his stolen car.

He ended up driving the car off the highway and into the woods when he saw the exit for a town that had a name that made him want to laugh and he instinctively knew that it was where he needed to go. Stars Hollow. He didn’t want to imagine a quaint little town. You couldn’t judge a town by its name. Stars Hollow was probably a dump and he would be stabbed and mugged the minute he set foot in it. They weren’t that far from New Haven and that city had its trouble areas. But he didn’t have much of a choice, right now. He couldn’t really make it any further that night.

He totally lucked out because after a quick search of the trunk, Tony came up with what looked to be a gym bag containing clothes roughly his size. And as a bonus, the wheel well of the car contained a first aid kit. For the time being, Tony slapped a bandage on his side without looking too closely at it, and changed into a non-bloody t-shirt after he yanked off the wire that had been taped to his chest, yelping a little as bits of chest hair were pulled off with it. He stuffed the wire into the bag, shrugged his leather jacket back on, shouldered the bag, made sure he had his gun and backup and knives ready, just in case, and then he concealed the car before trudging into town.

He walked by a billboard advertising a bed and breakfast called the ‘Dragonfly Inn’ which made him laugh, albeit a little hysterically. The Dragonfly Inn. Of course. An inn called the Dragonfly? That was where he _had_ to go. It was definitely a sign. He gave the billboard a friendly nod and continued to limp towards town, keeping off the streets and staying out of sight as much as he could.

He found the Dragonfly, paid the obnoxious Frenchman at the front desk cash for a night’s stay, despite the man’s insistence on a credit card, and he registered, using one of his many still-active identities. He took his key and stumbled to his room, exhausted and quickly running out of energy. The wound was still bleeding slowly though so he needed to take care of it soon. But before he did anything else, he picked up the phone by the bedside and dialed the number he’d memorized. Gibbs’ burner phone. He left a voicemail that contained the coordinates of the town and his room number in code, and repeated the details of the buyer and his crew, in case he’d been out of wire range when he did his summary earlier before he hung up.

He really needed to head to the bathroom to take care of his wound, but he’d sat down on the bed to make the call, leaning his body tiredly against the humongous pile of pillows at the head of the bed. And now, suddenly, going to the bathroom felt like it would take way too much energy. Way more energy than he had at the moment. He tried to take a deep breath to bolster himself upright, but all he could do was take little shallow breaths. He pressed down on the wound, whimpering with pain. He needed a moment to find the energy to do what needed to be done but right now maybe he could just try to slow down the bleeding. He jammed a pillow on his side and pressed down hard. Everything went fuzzy, his eyes rolled back in his head and then darkness engulfed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I used to work in the Groton and New London, CT area many years ago, and a few years before then I worked in Hartford, CT, so I'm pretty familiar with the area, especially for the time period that this story takes place (early seasons NCIS). That was around the time I worked in Groton/New London. I have such good memories of the area. Stars Hollow being in Connecticut, not far from Hartford worked great for getting Tony and Lorelai together. In this story, Stars Hollow is located in between Groton (on the coast) and Hartford (inland). That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :D


	2. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at the fabulous second poster artwork that my lovely RPD made! :D

**Chapter One**

[](https://i.imgur.com/rODQJRL.png)

Lorelai Gilmore was having a bad day. For one thing it was Friday, which automatically made it a no good very bad day. Other people loved Fridays because you know, it’s almost the weekend. But not Lorelai. Nope. Because Friday was Friday Night Dinner day. Even though things weren’t actually awful anymore, and Rory was enjoying being a sophomore at Yale, Friday Night Dinners at the Gilmore house still had its dangers. And the thing about Lorelai’s parents were, you could never relax around them. Just when you thought they were human and had human feelings, and maybe, maybe her mother understood just an iota of who Lorelai was and what was important to her, then something would happen and suddenly Lorelai would be faced with all the evidence that she had to have been switched at birth because she absolutely and totally did not fit in and didn’t understand why she wasn’t being heard by the people who were supposed to love her.

But. It was Friday, and whatever the hell else, now that Rory was in college, Lorelai was not going to skip Friday Night Dinners even though she was technically no longer obligated to be there, because she hadn’t seen her kid in a week. At least, she knew that this way she would see Rory once a week. The circumstances might not be ideal, and it would be better if they could relax, put their feet up and watch a movie when they got together, instead of sit with their postures perfect in the Gilmores’ formal dining room, but it was better than not seeing Rory at all. So she would take it.

But still. She still had trouble on Fridays. Despite having had Friday Night Dinners for several years now, it was never an easy thing to follow through. It was especially harder now that she didn’t have to try to at least attempt to put on a happy face for Rory, given that Rory didn’t live at home anymore. She could be as grumpy as she wanted without Rory living at home.

What the hell was her life coming to? Was she already ready to yell at kids to get off her lawn? She was still in her mid-thirties, but her daughter was already a sophomore in college. Rory had defined her, had changed her, made her a mother, made her a real person, made her a responsible adult, no matter her age at the time of her birth. And now Rory wasn’t even living at home anymore. Rory was herself an adult now. Sometimes that took her breath away, and it made her wonder if empty nest syndrome was a good thing for someone of her tender age.

So yeah. Lorelai was running around, her head in the clouds, her entire body tensed, ready for the onslaught that Friday night at the Gilmore house would bring, and yet excited for it, for the time to see her daughter and spend time with her most favorite person in the world. And despite it all, underneath the current need-more-caffeine induced grumpiness, she was happy. She was truly happy. The Dragonfly was open and consuming her time, and starting to do well. People were staying there. Making reservations. It was exciting. And that she got to share this with her very best friend in the whole wide world, Sookie, was amazing. It had been a dream fulfilled. So Lorelai was not going to waste this. She had always been a ‘grab life by the horns’ sort of person – hell look at how old she had been when Rory was born, evidence enough of her attitude towards life – and this was something she wasn’t going to squander. She might feel like there was a hole in her life now that Rory no longer lived at home, but she was busy, making her own life. Creating something else now that Rory was all grown up and independent and whatnot. She was working with her best friend to bring life to this inn and she was too busy being an entrepreneur and business woman to sit around moping about the fact that her love life was drier than the Mojave, or how much she missed having her daughter around. She was pouring her heart, her soul, all her energy into the Dragonfly and she loved what it was becoming. It was exactly as she had imagined, and she knew that it was in no small way because of her own tenacity that her inn had become a reality.

So that Friday morning, there she was, busy on the phone with Tom, her contractor, talking about some possible additional work that the inn might need – the barns needed to be looked at again now that they were going to actually adopt a couple of horses, and she was checking the books and trying to figure out how she was going to scrape by this month. They’d known that they would be in the red for a little while – she did have a business degree and a business plan and everything. It wasn’t a surprise that the Dragonfly wasn’t yet breaking even – they hadn’t even been open two months yet. But what surprised her was how personally she was taking everything. That it felt like a personal failure that they weren’t making a profit yet – even though her business plan showed that it would be four more months at the earliest before they would even start to break even, never mind make a profit. She just needed to be more patient and give the inn more time.

But patience was not one of Lorelai Gilmore’s virtues.

And then there came a bloodcurdling shriek from the second floor. Lorelai hastily made her excuses, hung up the phone and went running up the stairs, following the sounds of the screams, which hadn’t abated.

“What is going on?” she yelled.

It was Jo-beth, one of the housekeeping staff. Lorelai had a soft spot for the maids. It was where she had started in the hospitality industry, after all.

“Bl-bl-blood!” Jo-beth stuttered, pointing into the room. “There’s blood! And a dead body!”

“Stay here, and calm down,” she told the girl. There couldn’t possibly be a dead body in the room. They were in Stars Hollow for god’s sake. Nothing that exciting ever happened here.

“Should I call 9-1-1?” Jo-beth was from New Haven, and still wasn’t used to how small Stars Hollow truly was, and how calling 9-1-1 would be completely ineffective and inefficient.

“No. I’ve got this. Go take a break, then finish cleaning the rest of this floor except for this room. And don’t talk about this to anyone else. I’ll take care of this,” Lorelai told her grimly. She’d drive whoever it was registered to this room to the hospital in Hartford herself if she had to. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d had to drive a guest to the hospital instead of waiting for an ambulance to come.

Jo-beth nodded and scampered away.

Lorelai sighed, squared her shoulders, and tiptoed into the room, shutting the door behind her. 

“Hello?” she called out. “Sir, I’m the owner of the inn. Do you need medical help?”

Even though she owned the friggin’ building and she wasn’t trying to hide her presence in the room, she couldn’t help but tiptoe and try to keep as silent as she could. It was illogical. But the bathroom door was wide open and she could see that it looked empty in there, so she headed to the four poster bed in the middle of the room. She approached the bed hesitantly, craning her neck and pursing her lips, blue eyes wide as she looked on the bed.

A man laid there and Jo-beth hadn’t been kidding. The sheets seemed to be soaked in blood under where he was lying. He was on the brand new, good sheets, too, goddamnit. Not that Lorelai was completely heartless, but she didn’t really know what to think and quite what to do right now. Her experience running an inn in Stars Hollow did not include finding the bloodied dead bodies of ridiculously good looking men, OK? It was quite the surprise. Besides, she didn’t even get a chance to drink her last cup of coffee and get fully caffeinated – was it her sixth or seventh of the day? She had lost count. Anyway, whatever number it was, it wasn’t enough for her to deal with a dead body in her newly opened inn.

She decided that it was better for her to hold on to her dignity and tell herself that it was the sheets that mattered and not start freaking the hell out until she had figured out if the stupidly handsome dead guy was actually dead and that she needed to call the police to report an actual crime, or if the man was alive and injured and that she would need to get a police escort driving the guy to the hospital in Hartford. She didn’t think the Stars Hollow Medical Center would be able to deal with this kind of an injury. Stabbing? Knife wound? Had the guy been kidnapped and his liver and kidneys stolen by organ traffickers and he was left for dead in her inn?

She knew she was starting to get riled up at the thought that someone would be so horrible as to do such a thing, and especially for leaving the poor guy in _her_ friggin’ inn, of all places. Because there was just _so much_ blood.

Fingers trembling, she reached a hand out to his neck, thinking to feel for a pulse. That’s what all the cops did on all of the movies and TV shows she’d watched.

“Come on, Lorelai,” she told herself, when she found her hand stopping just shy of the man’s skin, taking in its unhealthy looking, dead looking, grayish pallor. “We’re talking _Law & Order_ here, and not _Nightmare on Elm Street_.” She forced her fingers forward a little more. “Not the thumb,” she told herself. She had completely forgotten the reason why she shouldn’t use her thumb, and if Rory was there, Rory would definitely know. But if she had ever known the reason to not use her thumb to get somebody’s pulse, right now it escaped her. So she gently placed the pads of her index and middle fingers on where she thought his jugular was.

There was no pulse. His skin was cool to the touch.

She shifted her fingers a little trying to see if she could feel his heartbeat. Maybe she wasn’t putting her fingers in the right spot?

Still nothing.

Shit, the gorgeous guy was dead! She blew out a ragged sigh. This was just exactly what she needed to make this awful Friday even worse. A dead guy in her inn. Why couldn’t it be an ugly dead guy instead of a hot, fit looking dead guy? Were the only good looking guys she was destined to meet married, unavailable, gay or _dead_? She swore softly under her breath, meaning to turn away. But a bloody hand grasped her wrist tightly, and the guy’s eyes were open, glaring at her.

“Who are you?” he rasped.

Lorelai couldn’t help the frightened half scream that escaped her. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she stared at the man, eyes wide and mouth open.

“Who the fuck are you and what are you doing in my room?” the man’s tone was menacing, and oh fuck no, he’d pulled a gun out from somewhere and it was pointed right at her.

Lorelai swallowed audibly, and even though she was actually fearing for her life, she couldn’t help but appreciate how incredibly beautiful the man’s eyes were, now that they were open and she could see them. Despite being red-rimmed and filled with pain, they were gorgeous. Green, like the water of the Stars Hollow swimming hole. Green and fathomless, like pools of emerald. His eyes were crinkled in the corners, as if he were a man used to laughing, instead of this scary guy pointing a gun at her.

“I’m Lorelai Gilmore,” she managed to stutter out. “I own this inn.”

“OK?” the man said, although it sounded more like a question and less like a statement.

“Look, I’m going to call 9-1-1, OK?” she gasped. He didn’t need to know that calling 9-1-1 was the slowest way of getting him help. Hell, she could just pretend to call 9-1-1 and then drive him to the hospital in Hartford. “You need the police. And a hospital. I thought you were dead. You’ve lost what looks to be a nauseatingly lot of blood, buddy.”

“Don’t call 9-1-1,” the man gritted out, putting the gun down and pressing down on a pillow placed on his side. He groaned pitifully. “Please. No cops.”

Lorelai didn’t know what the hell was wrong with her but the man’s pained moan had made her nipples tingle and her pussy start to get wet. What the hell? Now she was getting aroused by a half dead man’s moans of pain? Had it been _that_ long since she’d last gotten laid?

“OK. No cops. Then I’ll drive you to Hartford so we can get you all patched up, nice and quiet,” she babbled on, deciding to ignore everything going on below her waist and under her blouse. Because yeah, she had more important things to worry about now. Like how she so needed to get the man out of her inn and somewhere with medical attention and away from possibly endangering anyone else in Stars Hollow. And the minute she got him off her hands, she was _so_ calling the cops on him. Even if he was the most attractive man she’d seen in months. “What happened to you? What’s your name?” she asked.

The man frowned, looking at her in confusion.

“Oh my god! Was it blunt force trauma to the head? Have you forgotten who you are?” Lorelai stared at the man, shocked. How would it feel to wake up not knowing who you were? She didn’t know. Maybe she, too, would be pointing guns at people if she woke up injured and without knowing where she was and even who she was.

“ _What?_ ” his perfect brow creased in confusion.

“Oh my god! You have absolutely no memory of who you are, don’t you? Don’t go all Jason Bourne on my cute ass, OK?” Lorelai continued to babble. “I’m just an innocent inn owner.”

The man loosened his grip on her wrist. “ _The Bourne Identity_? Please. At least give me credit to be Leonard from _Memento_. I think I’m more Guy Pearce than Matt Damon, any day. Gritty. That’s me.”

“ _What?_ ” it was Lorelai’s turn to gape at him. “You think you’re more Guy Pearce than Matt Damon? I don’t know. You’ve kind of got that innocent look that Matt Damon does.”

“Didn’t you watch _The Talented Mr Ripley?_ ” the man groused. “Matt Damon is no innocent. How ‘bout _them_ apples?”

“If you’re Leonard in _Memento_ , then where are your tattoos?” Lorelai was refuting his claim.

“I fucking hate needles,” the man panted softly. “Especially the home made kind. So no. No tatts.”

“Surprising that someone with amnesia can still remember all these movies,” Lorelai retorted.

The man started to laugh but broke off to whimper. “Fuck,” he whimpered softly. He pressed the pillow against his side again, moaning softly. “I don’t have amnesia,” he managed to pant out. “I remember stuff. I don’t need to tattoo my body with things I can’t remember when I can remember them. I’m no Jason Bourne.”

“Shit, you’re really injured and probably about to bleed to death.”

“Hand me the first aid kit,” the man pointed to a box peeking out of his duffel bag. “Help me to the bathroom. Then you can go. That’s all I need.”

“No way,” Lorelai had pulled her phone out. “I’m calling 9-1-1.” The man _had_ pulled a gun on her. Although she wasn’t sure she wanted Stars Hollow only police officer to be put in danger if she got him involved. But this guy didn’t really strike her as someone who would shoot someone for no reason. He had argued with her about what movie character he would most be like if he had amnesia, and he didn’t even have amnesia!

“Look, I can’t explain what’s going on without putting you and other people here in danger, but I need to just patch myself up and then I’ll be out of your hair,” he said. “No one needs to know I was even here.”

“How very Treadstone of you.”

“Good god. Not. Jason. Bourne. At least give me Leonard,” he glared at her.

“No.”

The man sighed, closing his amazing eyes and blowing out a long, stuttering, pained breath. And then he didn’t open his eyes again. Oh shit, had Lorelai killed him with all her chatter? Or was it the blood loss? She really should be calling 9-1-1 but she didn’t know why she hesitated. Even though this man had pointed a gun at her, she believed him when he said he would put people in danger if people knew he was here, and that he didn’t want to put anyone in danger. And even though he could very well be some kind of violent criminal – he _did_ have a gun – she really didn’t believe that. Couldn’t believe it. Not just because he was gorgeous because even beautiful people could be evil. Something in the man’s eyes made her want to trust him implicitly. Eyes that she wished were open, now that he had closed them and deprived her of their fascinating green-ness. Was green-ness even a word?

She should probably look to see what horrors he was hiding under the pillow that made him moan in pain every time he pressed down on it. And yes, god should definitely strike her dead for thinking his moans of pain to be sexy, and for her nipples to harden every time he did that. She really needed to get laid to stop with the inappropriate arousal. But you know, it was difficult to be a young, single mother sometimes. Even though her daughter had flown the coop, Lorelai had settled down to live in a small town where everyone knew everyone else, and if she were to bring home a one night stand, even if he were a stranger from out of town, Babette and Miss Patty would absolutely have spread the word around town even before she would be able to kick him out in the morning. So she hadn’t had much sex in her own house. Boy. She really needed to get out more. Maybe then she wouldn’t be at the point of creaming her panties each time this man moaned. Which he wasn’t doing now, because he seemed to have passed out again.

She took a deep breath, steeled herself, and grimaced, her nose wrinkling as she gently pulled the pillow up. The pillow case stuck to whatever the hell was going on under there, and she carefully tried to ease it off.

It was even more horrific than she had thought. There was blood everywhere. The pillow was definitely destined for the incinerator. Hell, maybe even the entire mattress. Lorelai was no expert on mortal wounds, but this sure looked like one.

“You’re not going to wake up and shoot me if I call 9-1-1, right?” she muttered to the unconscious man. “No? Oh good. Then I am going to do it because I can’t carry you to my jeep to take you to a hospital and you really need a hospital. I can’t have the hot guy die on my watch…”

Lorelai’s word vomit was interrupted by the shrill ringing of the bedside phone. She watched it for a long, panic filled moment, before she started to reach for the receiver. Her entire hand was trembling, and oh god oh god oh god, there was blood on her fingers now. The hot man’s blood. But still. It was blood.

Speaking of blood, a bloody hand snaked out to grip her wrist again, and she screamed in surprise.

“Hand the phone to me,” the man gritted out.

She nodded, waiting for him to release her wrist before she answered the call, pressing on the “speaker” button instead of handing the man the receiver.

“Dragonfly?” a man’s voice barked.

“Here, Boss,” the man panted.

Dragonfly? Who named their kid Dragonfly? Lorelai wondered.

“You sound like shit. You hit?”

“Caught one last night.”

“Fuck. Has it been dealt with?”

“Kind of passed out last night?”

“So, no, then?”

“Affirmative.”

“How bad is it?”

“I’m not dead yet, so probably didn’t hit any vital organs,” the man pressed down on the pillow and whimpered softly.

The man on the other end of the line emitted what sounded to Lorelai like a cross between a sigh and a concerned growl. “Take care of it. I can’t come get you yet. We have some complications. We’re still hunting down all loose ends. You need to stay where you are and keep your head down.”

The man groaned. “How long?”

“I don’t know,” the other man sighed again. “I don’t know, Dragonfly. Things blew up and went FUBAR… I’ve got the team working to…

“Boss, this isn’t a secure line,” the man interrupted, those deep green eyes giving Lorelai a baleful glare.

“Do you need to move to a secure location?”

“Fuck, yeah.”

“I can’t send anyone for you right now as any move I make will point the… loose ends… we’re… looking for right at you. They’ll get there before I can get there.”

“Copy that,” the injured man sighed. “I’ll keep my head down and let you know when I’ve reached the safe house.”

“The safe house in Hartford has been compromised so…”

“Improvise. Got it, Boss.”

“Take care of yourself, Dragonfly,” the voice gentled. “I’m not looking to train a new SFA.”

“I hear you, Boss.”

“Watch your six.”

“Roger that.”

The call was disconnected then and Lorelai could only stare at the man, her blue eyes wide with fear. What the hell was going on?

“Are you in the military? Is this _actually_ Treadstone? Is this a CIA op gone wrong?” she stammered, trying to figure things out in her head based on the conversation she’d just heard.

“With _this_ haircut?” the man gestured to his head, although his brown hair looked short enough to be military for Lorelai. “Definitely not military. And I would never join the CIA.” He looked affronted by that.

“But this _is_ some kind of op gone wrong, though?”

“Look, lady…”

“Lorelai,” she interrupted him. “I’m Lorelai.”

“Right. Lorelai Gilmore, owner of the Dragonfly Inn,” the man grinned at her, and Lorelai’s heart stuttered. The man’s cheeks creased into deep and adorable dimples when he grinned.

“You remembered?”

“I don’t actually have amnesia, you know. I already told you this. Look, Lorelai,” he said, still grinning, one eyebrow quirked upwards. Oh yeah. Lorelai could see that the man was one who was used to smiling. A natural charmer. His eyes crinkled attractively as he did so right now, and his cheeks dimpled. “Just hand me the first aid kit and I’ll be out of here in an hour, tops. You don’t need to know the details.”

“Why, if you told me, would you have to kill me?” Lorelai didn’t know why she was arguing with getting what was obviously more trouble than she could safely handle – yes, she was absolutely talking about the gun and definitely not the man holding the gun.

“Why else would I have a gun?” the man quipped.

Lorelai sighed, pulling the first aid kit over. “Let me help you.”

“Just help get me into the bathroom so I don’t make an even worse mess of your poor bed,” the man grunted, trying to heave himself up to a sitting position. He made it almost all the way up to a sitting position before he paled drastically, his eyes rolled up to the back of his head, and he slumped back down on the pillows, in a boneless sprawl.

“No, no, no,” Lorelai began slapping his face gently.

“Five more minutes, Boss,” the man – _Dragonfly_ , Lorelai remembered, that was what his boss called him – murmured without opening his eyes. Dragonfly? The name of her inn? Quite the coincidence.

She kept slapping his face with no response now. Dragonfly was definitely down for the count. There was no way Lorelai was going to be able to get him into the bathroom without help and she peeked under the pillow again and blew out a long breath. There was no way she would be able to help this man with what was quite possibly some kind of terrible stab wound by herself. She needed help.

Stars Hollow was an amazing place to live, and an ideal place to raise a child, but it was truly not a good place to have some kind of traumatic wound. They weren’t Hartford. They didn’t have the drug addicts, the gangsters, or the crazies that hounded the ERs in Hartford. An exciting week in Stars Hollow was when Kirk managed to forget to map out where he’d hidden the Easter eggs and the town square started to smell, or the time that little Bobby Grantham jumped off his parents’ garage roof and broke his arm. Lorelai started thinking. Who could she call to ask for help?

Her mind went back and she remembered Miss Patty telling her about how she had been a nurse in the army. It might be a tall tale, but it might be the truth. You never could tell with Miss Patty. Lorelai went to the bathroom and washed her hands thoroughly of Dragonfly’s blood and left the room, hanging the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the doorknob and ensuring that she locked the door behind her.

Jo-beth was peeking at her from the stairwell door.

“Jo-beth, can I ask you to keep this quiet?” she asked the girl.

“I’m not covering up for murder, Lorelai,” the girl stuttered.

“He’s alive. He’s a little banged up but he paid up for a second night and he says he’ll reimburse us for the clean up.”

“He’s alive?” Jo-beth’s eyes were huge. “B-but there was so much blood!”

“I know,” Lorelai nodded sympathetically. “I almost threw up when I saw it, and he wasn’t happy that I invaded his room. But he’s got a first aid kit and he’s going to be fine.”

Jo-beth nodded in relief and Lorelai could see that she wanted to believe Lorelai and didn’t want to know more about the possible dead man. Thank god she was from New Haven and just wanted to mind her own business because someone local might have already spread the word about a dead guy in the Dragonfly.

“Are you done cleaning this floor?” Lorelai asked.

Jo-beth nodded.

“Great, then why don’t you take your break and then you can start on the next floor. I’m going to run to the CVS and get the guest in 207 some more medical supplies.”

Jo-beth nodded.

“I’m serious, the guest really wants to keep this private so you have to keep this to yourself. Have you told anyone else about what you saw in there?”

Jo-beth shook her head.

Lorelai gave her a long look before she nodded. “Go on and take your break. And remember…”

“I won’t say a thing, Lorelai,” the girl whispered. “As long as he’s not dead.”

“He’s alive and well,” Lorelai assured her.

After Jo-beth scampered down the stairs, Lorelai went to the elevator. She had some things to do now so the man in 207 wouldn’t die in her inn and make a liar out of her.


	3. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK I admit it. This artwork is my favorite. It just makes me think of Casablanca so much... They're just so beautiful together :D

**Chapter Two**

[](https://i.imgur.com/sn2geME.png)

The first thing Lorelai did was go downstairs to her office and surreptitiously update 207’s – Dragonfly’s – stay another day. She didn’t know if he would need to stay even longer but for now, he was all set for another day. She really hoped that whatever agency he worked for would reimburse her for the second night. She wasn’t in a good position to offer free nights’ stays to anyone, and besides, she had the cleaning bill to think about. Blood was notoriously difficult to get out of bedding and mattresses.

She checked out the New York State driver’s license that Michel had made a copy of when Dragonfly checked in last night. Dragonfly’s green eyes popped out at her and there was a tiny little smirk teasing at the corners of his mouth, making him look quite mischievous. The name on the license was Anthony Hollingsworth. Lorelai snorted to herself. The license might not look at all fake, but she would bet the inn that Anthony Hollingsworth was not Dragonfly’s real name. Mister I Am Not Jason Bourne was definitely some kind of something, so he wouldn’t be using his real name holing up at the Dragonfly while his ‘Boss’ went around tying up all the ‘loose ends’. Good god. Did they think she was stupid? Although she had to love that she had a Dragonfly in room 207 of the Dragonfly. Was that why he’d made his way to her inn, she wondered?

She chugged her now cold coffee, made a face, but sucked down the entire mug before she ran out the back. Sookie and Michel would assume that she was heading out for coffee but instead she detoured to Miss Patty’s. Luckily it was early enough yet that Miss Patty’s wasn’t filled with students. The bright haired statuesque woman was outside, sucking on a cigarette.

“Hey Miss Patty,” Lorelai grinned at her.

“Lorelai,” Miss Patty’s smile was genuine and welcoming. “How goes things at the Dragonfly?”

“Good, good,” Lorelai replied. “But you know, I just wanted to ask you a question. Miss Patty, you’ve mentioned that you were an Army nurse during the Vietnam War? Is that right?”

Miss Patty nodded. “Hell of a place,” she sighed, taking a deep drag of her cigarette, courteously blowing the smoke away from Lorelai.

“So, you were like, a real nurse?”

“Still one now, Lorelai,” Miss Patty laughed. “I just never wanted to renew my license after I got back from Vietnam. The call of the stage was much stronger than all that blood.” She wrinkled her nose.

“Could you, you know, come by the inn? We’re going to need your expertise.”

“Is someone hurt, dear? We should call 9-1-1 if it’s not urgent, otherwise you know you should drive them to Hartford.”

Lorelai looked around them, glad that Miss Patty’s studio was out of the main drag. She moved closer to the woman, her expression serious now. “There’s a guest who I believe is some kind of government operative. He’s injured and passed out in a room at the inn. I got to listen to his ‘boss’ telling him it wasn’t safe and to hole up for a while.”

“Oh my,” the unflappable woman’s masacara-ed eyes widened. “Are you playing some kind of trick on me, Lorelai? Is there a code word I’m supposed to know, and then you win a prize if I guess it correctly?”

“I’m deadly serious. I don’t want this guy to die in my inn, Miss Patty. There’s so much blood and I don’t know, maybe he was stabbed or something? Honestly, I couldn’t really look at it because I didn’t want to puke on him.”

Miss Patty sighed and stared at Lorelai for a moment, looking skeptical and uncertain. “Let me get my bag,” she finally said.

“And we can’t let anyone else know about him.”

The woman rolled her eyes. “Government operative, huh? CIA? Black Ops?”

“He claimed he would never join the CIA.”

“Huh,” the older woman grunted, grabbing her large bag. “Let’s go then. I might need to send you to get more supplies once we know what we’re dealing with. If this is a real thing, Lorelai. If you’re plotting something and trying to pull a prank on me, you are going to regret it.”

“Not a prank. I’m completely, one hundred percent, serious about this. Oh, thank you so much, Miss Patty! Thank you thank you thank you! I owe you!”

“Don’t promise me your firstborn now, Lorelai. She’s all grown up.”

Lorelai couldn’t help but laugh. She managed to sneak Miss Patty in a side entrance and up the stairs to 207. When they entered the room, Dragonfly was still.

“I tried to check his pulse earlier but I couldn’t feel any,” Lorelai whispered to Miss Patty as they approached the blood soaked bed. “Then he grabbed my arm and scared the bejesus out me!”

“On the neck?”

Lorelai nodded.

“It can sometimes be really difficult to find the pulse on the jugular if you’re not trained,” Miss Patty nodded sagely.

Lorelai made a face. “I guess that’s true. Sometimes I try that on my _own_ neck and I can’t feel a pulse and obviously I’m alive since I’m the one looking for it, right?”

“Calm down, my dear. Let’s see what we have here.”

Lorelai watched as Miss Patty suddenly became a different person. First she took the gun laying next to the man and did something to it that Lorelai had only ever seen in the movies. She removed the clip, and unchambered the round or whatever. She then laid the gun and ammunition in the drawer of the side table, out of the man’s reach. Then she grabbed the first aid kit on the bed and opened her purse, pulling out more things from it. She was snapping on latex gloves and taking his pulse from his wrist when she sent Lorelai to the bathroom for hot water and towels. Lorelai literally had to stop herself from puking when Miss Patty pulled the pillow and t-shirt away and began to carefully prod Dragonfly’s side.

The low moan of pain from Dragonfly surprised Lorelai, making her jump, and Miss Patty glared at her. She’d lifted the man’s t-shirt up and was trying to wipe the blood away with damp towels.

“Put some gloves on and help me wipe up the blood so I can see what the hell is wrong with this man, Lorelai,” Patty ordered.

“Yes, ma’am,” Lorelai nodded, immediately jumping to obey her. She kept making faces at the disgusting goriness of it all, but she did as she was told, wiping the man’s skin clean of blood.

Miss Patty growled under her breath when their efforts revealed a small hole, a pucker, really, that was still oozing blood, on Dragonfly’s side.

“He was shot, Lorelai. Not stabbed,” Miss Patty observed calmly.

Lorelai had to swallow down bile at the statement.

“I need you to keep him from trying to punch me if he wakes up,” Patty told her. “I have to look for an exit wound.”

Lorelai made a face and nodded, blood leaving her head leaving her feeling a little lightheaded.

“Suck it up, Gilmore,” Patty snapped at her. “Do as I tell you.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Lorelai gulped, shaking her head and holding Dragonfly’s shoulders, wondering how to hold him firmly but gently, because she didn’t want him to hurt Miss Patty but she didn’t want to accidentally hurt him, either. It was almost like learning to hold Rory when she had first been handed to Lorelai after she’d been born. How did you find that balance of holding the baby securely without bringing to bear the strength of an adult and crushing an infant in a hold? She’d figured that out pretty quickly so she drew strength from that and sucked it up, like Miss Patty had told her to do. She ensured that his hands were restrained.

“Ready?”

Lorelai nodded, meeting Patty’s serious eyes. It was odd, seeing Miss Patty so serious. She was usually the one with a joke or a song or a dance to lighten the moment, but this woman was deadly serious. Lorelai could see how she would have been a formidable nurse during wartime if she could stare Lorelai into submission where Emily Gilmore had tried and failed to do this for years.

Miss Patty expertly flipped Dragonfly halfway onto his side to examine his back, carefully wiping the blood away before she flipped him back to his original position without incident.

“I’m on it, Boss,” the man moaned, eyes moving underneath closed lids.

“Shhhh, honey,” Patty soothed him. “You just sleep, OK?”

“Don’t tell him…” he moaned.

“Tell who what, honey?” Patty asked absently, as she pulled out what looked to be tongs of some kind from her first aid kit.

“The Boss. I’m not sick. Don’t tell him I’m sick.”

“No, of course you’re not sick. I won’t tell him anything.”

“’M fine.”

“You sure are, honey,” Patty leered at the mostly unconscious man. “Go on back to sleep now.”

“K,” he sighed.

“Lorelai, get the rubbing alcohol from my case and douse these with it,” Patty held the tongs things out to her.

Lorelai did as she was bid, watching as Miss Patty peered into the wound, muttering to herself.

“No exit wound,” Patty was muttering. “Probably a small caliber bullet, given the size of the entry wound. No excessive bleeding.”

No excessive bleeding? Lorelei looked at her ruined bed. It definitely looked pretty damned _excessive_ to her.

“Ensure all shrapnel is removed from the wound. Stitch up any internal injuries. Disinfect. Stitch it all up. Start a course of antibiotics,” Miss Patty continued speaking to herself.

Lorelai handed the implement back to Miss Patty and then held a flashlight to help the former nurse see what she was doing. She kept swallowing down bile as Miss Patty started extracting the bullet fragments out of the wound and dropping them into a bowl, occasionally hushing the man gently when he moaned in pain. It felt like a long time before Miss Patty blew out a long breath.

“I think I got all the pieces out,” she said softly. “He might wake up so you need to keep him calm if he does. Can you do that, Lorelai?”

“Yes, Miss Patty,” Lorelai nodded.

“Good.”

Then the nurse threaded a needle and began stitching up little bits of the man’s insides. She swabbed the wound carefully to sterilize it and then she told Lorelai to hold him down.

“This is going to hurt,” she warned them both, even though there was no way the man could hear her. “Hold him down so he doesn’t accidentally hurt himself. Or us. I don’t recommend this approach but I can’t close him up until we’ve completely disinfected the inside of his wound and I don’t have the right tools to do this humanely. I have no anesthesia, nothing to help him with the pain.”

“Oh god oh god oh god,” Lorelai kept repeating it as she knelt on the bed, took the man’s hands and placed it on his chest, and placed her weight on him, pinning him down.

“Here we go. I’m so sorry, honey,” Miss Patty apologized to the unconscious man. “I hope you sleep through this.”

She poured the rubbing alcohol into the wound.

It was nothing like the movies. Dragonfly’s eyes flew open and he screamed in agony, arching his body upwards, struggling to push Lorelai and Miss Patty off of him. Veins popped in his neck. The pain he felt was so strong Lorelai could almost feel it.

“It’s OK, shushhhh. It’s OK. Dragonfly, Dragonfly. It’s me. Lorelai,” Lorelai was babbling, trying to calm the screaming man.

It took a couple of minutes before Dragonfly stopped screaming, his breaths now coming in harsh pants. “What the fuck is going on?”

“Dragonfly, this is Miss Patty,” Lorelai nodded to the older woman. “She’s the superhero who’s saving your life. So stop struggling.”

Dragonfly gave Miss Patty a confused look.

“You’re…”

“Former Army Nurse, so you’re getting field medical treatment.”

“Hot Lips Houlahan,” Dragonfly murmured, and he began to hum the theme from _M*A*S*H_.

Miss Patty laughed. “Yeah, that’s me. Except it was the Vietnam War. I was too young for Korea, young man.”

He settled back down, whimpering softly. “Hurts…” he moaned, and there went Lorelai’s nipples again. She gave them a stern mental talking to, to get them to pipe down. She could see that his eyes were dilated and he probably wasn’t fully conscious. God, she was definitely going to hell for this.

“Dragonfly?” Patty asked Lorelai.

“It’s what his boss called him.”

“Dragonfly at the Dragonfly,” Patty grinned.

“It was a sign,” Dragonfly mumbled.

“It was definitely a sign,” Patty told him approvingly.

“He’s registered as Anthony Hollingsworth,” Lorelai supplied.

“Tony,” Dragonfly told them. “’M Tony.”

“Tony,” Lorelai ran her fingers through his hair. “Hi, Tony.”

“Lorelai Gilmore. Owner of the Dragonfly Inn,” he recited.

“That’s right.”

“Tony?” Miss Patty called, and Tony turned those mesmerizing green eyes on the older woman. “I have to stitch up the wound now and then disinfect it again.”

He swallowed and nodded.

“It’s gonna hurt,” Patty warned him. “I have nothing to anesthetize you. Nothing to help with the pain. I’m retired from nursing so we only have what I have on hand in my bag.”

He gulped another swallow and nodded.

“You’ve got to stay as still as you can, OK honey? I don’t want to scar you more than you need to be.”

“OK, Hot Lips,” he licked his lips, frowning, before he took a deep breath to ready himself.

Miss Patty and Lorelai exchanged a wry glance and Lorelai nodded when she saw the unspoken question in Miss Patty’s eyes. She was ready to help keep Dragonfly – Tony – as still as she could. She was getting pretty good at stopping injured men from hurting themselves further during treatment, after all. But as it turned out, Tony kept still, gritting his teeth and grunting softly as Miss Patty sewed him up. He flinched and cried out when she disinfected him again, but kept relatively still. His eyes were closed and his breathing fast and shallow while the nurse bandaged him.

“I have to go and see if I can get him some antibiotics,” Miss Patty told Lorelai. “I’ll cancel my classes for the rest of the day and come back as soon as I can. Can you stay with him while I’m gone?”

Lorelai nodded.

“Try and get him cleaned up a little so he doesn’t look like an extra from _M*A*S*H_.”

“I heard that,” Tony mumbled, prying open his eyes and giving Miss Patty a look. “No one can know I’m here.”

Patty rolled her eyes. “I know when to keep my mouth shut, Tony. And this is definitely one of those times.”

Tony scrabbled his hands around on the bed. “Ladies, where’s my service weapon?”

Patty ignored the question. “Back soon.”

She left the room and Lorelai gave Tony a leer. “Sponge bath, my good sir?”

“My gun?”

“It’s someplace safe.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “I can wash myself, thank you. Have done since I was like, yea high,” he gestured with his hand, approximately child height.

Lorelai snorted but she went and got a clean basin of warm water and brought the inn body wash and soap with her. She helped him get his t-shirt off, trying not to ogle his six pack and his defined pecs and biceps and broad shoulders and giving herself a mental flogging for the tightening of her nipples under her blouse again. He had some chest hair but he wasn’t a bear or anything like that and she could see the intriguing trail of hair leading into his jeans. She ignored his protests as she gently scrubbed him clean, until he gave up and sighed contentedly as she continued her ministrations. He was so relaxed he didn’t even protest when she started on his belt. His jeans were soaked with blood so she helped pull them off. She couldn’t help but blush when she saw that he was going commando, and he had a nice looking dick, even though it was soft and nestled in his dark pubic hair.

“Like what you see, do ya?” he asked, trying for a saucy grin, but she could see that his energy was flagging.

“Maybe when you’re all better, sailor,” she grinned.

“Not a sailor,” he pouted, which made her heart stutter again. He was friggin’ adorable. And completely naked.

“Besides, maybe I was looking at your gun,” she unstrapped the holster at his ankle.

“That’s what they always say,” he smiled tiredly at her.

“You ready to go to war or something?” Lorelai asked, unstrapping two knives, one strapped to his other ankle, another to the inside of his thigh.

“Always carry a knife,” he mumbled. “It’s a rule.”

Lorelai shook her head, dumping all of the man’s weapons into the side table drawer with his other gun and looking at him. And wow, he was one hell of a beautiful man. Miss Patty would be so upset to miss this view, Lorelai thought.

Whoa, Lorelai. She had to tear her eyes away from the man, because even though his dick wasn’t hard, she could already imagine what he would look like aroused. She needed to reel it in before she started actually drooling on the man. She started giving herself a stern talking to. Just because the man was hot and naked and cute and he thought he was more _Memento_ than _Bourne Identity_ didn’t mean that she could just start licking those abdominal muscles of his. Besides, he would need to take a proper shower first. She was not going to trust the sponge bath would have gotten all the blood particles and as much as she wanted to lick him, she was not too eager to have a taste of his blood. She had read Rory’s paper on blood-borne diseases, thank you very much.

Although he really was gorgeous. Maybe she would make an exception about the whole licking the abdominals thing, blood or no blood. Or maybe she could just lick other parts of the man. 

Holy god! She had to keep telling herself off for her terrible thoughts. It wasn’t the time or the place to hit on the guy, for god’s sake.

She went through the duffel bag he’d brought with him and found a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. She wiped the rest of his body clean as quickly and efficiently as she could, trying not to linger on his muscular legs or his groin, before she dried him. There was some groaning which of course caused her nipples to harden and her pussy to slicken up, as she helped him move onto the clean side of the bed before she helped dress him. But she ignored her body’s responses to the man. Instead, she went and got clean sheets and pillowcases, and changed the bedding, working around him, sliding the dirty sheet off and the clean sheets on while he was still laying on the bed. Having had to do that for Rory when she was sick with the chicken pox at age eight helped her greatly.

Finally she got him settled in, letting him sip some water. Miss Patty wasn’t back yet and there was a pile of bloodied sheets that Lorelai was just going to throw out. Unfortunately, Tony’s skin was clammy and his temperature was rising. He was mostly unconscious again, which was probably a blessing at this point.

When Miss Patty returned, she pulled the old fashioned coat stand from the door to the bed and hung a bag filled with clear liquid on it. She stuck an IV in the back of Tony’s hand and started the liquid dripping into the man.

“Antibiotics and saline. You don’t want to know what I had to do to get them,” Patty gave her a naughty smirk.

Lorelai covered her face with her hands. Miss Patty had been teasing the doctor from the next town for years and she could only imagine the kind of ‘favors’ the dance teacher might have promised the poor, smitten doctor for these supplies.

“Painkillers are more controlled though so I couldn’t get any really good ones. No codeine. Just some hospital grade motrin. Try to get him to take some when he wakes up.”

Lorelai nodded. Patty advised her to put the bullet fragments in a plastic resealable baggie, in case they needed it for evidence, and even though it felt like overkill or that they were maybe guilty of watching way too much _Law & Order_, Lorelai did it. She stuffed it into her bag for safekeeping.

For the rest of the afternoon, she ran around the inn trying to appear normal, taking as many breaks as she could to go to Tony’s room to help Miss Patty who was staying with him, wiping him down with cool washcloths to keep his fever down. He was muttering under his breath, fevered words, and he kept calling for his ‘boss’ and a name, ‘Gibbs’, but otherwise it was a lot of random words. Nothing that gave away anything about the mysterious man.

“Hey, Miss Patty,” Lorelai asked Patty when she took over to give the nurse a cigarette break. Patty had just come in from a quiet side door where she had taken a smoke break. “Is it just in the movies where people who are stuck in this kind of fever keep calling for their mothers?”

Miss Patty sighed, sitting on the bed and running her fingers through Tony’s sweat soaked hair. “No, Lorelai. That’s not just in the movies. I saw even the manliest of soldiers cry for their mothers when they’re sick and fevered like this.”

“Has he called for his mother while I wasn’t in the room? Cause he’s never done that with me around.”

Patty shook her head. “Never,” she said solemnly.

“Not even once?”

“Unh-unh.”

“What does that mean?”

Miss Patty sighed, her fingers gentle as she patted her patient. “This poor young man probably never had a mother,” she said softly. “Not one that he ever found comforting.”

“He keeps calling for his boss.”

“Sad, right?” Miss Patty gave her a small smile. “A full grown man calls for his boss when he’s out of his mind like this. Means he went his entire life without someone he thought was in his corner, until he started working for this ‘boss’ of his.”

“Fuck,” Lorelai stared down at the injured man. She might have a terrible relationship with her parents, but there were times when she wanted her mother. Often the reality of her mother didn’t match what she wanted, but she did at times want her mother around. She did at least still have some semblance of a relationship with them, and she did love her mother. This poor man didn’t even know to call for his mother when he was out of his mind with fever. He’d probably had a worse childhood than she did, and hers hadn’t really been a cakewalk. She really hoped that he was a good guy because this boss that he was so devoted to might be some kind of Mafiosi or something. But Don Gibbs didn’t really fit well, so maybe not. But she was still certain that he wasn’t a bad guy. Tony just didn’t feel like a bad guy to her.

Luckily for them, Tony was mostly lucid by the time Lorelai had to leave for Hartford. Tony gave her a wad of cash to cover the room and expenses, and asked her to use some of the cash to buy him a burner cell phone. Lorelai stopped at a Radio Shack on her way to her parents’ and did as he asked. Dinner with her parents was a blur. She was completely distracted by the mysterious man in 207 and was just trying to skate by. Rory pulled her aside at one point.

“Mom, what is wrong with you tonight?” Rory wanted to know.

“Just some stuff going on at the inn,” Lorelai told her. “Don’t worry about it, honey. I’m just a little distracted. I’m fine.”

“You look stressed out.”

“It is still Friday Night Dinner with Emily and Richard. You know they always stress me out,” Lorelai wrinkled her nose.

Rory gave her a long look before she nodded.

Lorelai got out of there as soon as she could, driving back to Stars Hollow as fast as the speed limit would allow her. She was careful not to speed, not wanting to have to face any kind of law enforcement when she was already feeling so guilty. She had purchased a burner cell phone, for crying out loud! Besides, her jeep didn’t really speed that well anymore. She zoomed straight back to the inn and snuck up to 207.

Miss Patty was enjoying a room service steak and Tony was slowly eating what looked like Sookie’s special chicken soup.

“What happened to the cone of silence?” Lorelai demanded. “Does Sookie know what’s going on here now?”

“Of course not,” Miss Patty rolled her eyes. “Give us more credit, Lorelai.”

“Mr Hollingsworth from 207 called for room service,” Tony spoke up. “I asked them to knock on the door and just leave it out there.”

“I pulled the cart in after waiting a few minutes,” Miss Patty giggled. “It was so very James Bond.”

Tony almost choked on the soup, laughing at Miss Patty.

“You’re full of beans,” Lorelai took a closer look at Tony, seeing his eyes clear and green and lucid.

Tony sighed. “Feeling pretty good. I’m going to have to check out and get going while it’s still dark.”

“You’re not going anywhere, young man,” Miss Patty told him. “You’re feeling good now, but I know your wound is good and infected. You shouldn’t have left a bullet in you for what? Sixteen? Eighteen hours?”

“It wasn’t like I did it on purpose,” Tony argued. “Besides, I need to get out of here and get someplace more secure where I won’t be risking civilian lives just by being here.”

“You’re going to endanger people on the road when you drive delirious with fever. You feel good now but you won’t in another hour or two. The cycle’s going to continue. You need these antibiotics for at least another twenty four hours,” Miss Patty told him firmly. “And then you’d still have to finish the full course of oral antibiotics for at least another week. You’ll need a real doctor for that, though.”

“Did you get the phone?” Tony turned to Lorelai, when his efforts at glaring Miss Patty into submission failed.

“Unh-unh,” Miss Patty shook her head. “Get more soup in you first. Don’t make me spoon feed you, Tony.”

Tony sighed and pouted, which made Lorelai want to smile, especially since the pout revealed those delicious dimples of his. “Fine,” he groused, going back to eating. Once Miss Patty was satisfied with his calorie consumption, Lorelai handed him the bag containing the phone. He ripped the packaging apart and pulled out the phone, assembling it quickly.

“Have a lot of experience with burner phones, do you?” Lorelai quizzed him.

He grinned at her. “My boss is a fucking luddite. He refuses to use a real cell phone. And he has a terrible habit of destroying his phones and expecting us to just magically fix it all. So we have a supply of these types of phones in the office for him and replace them for him when he needs it. Like when he threw it against the wall because he was angry, or the time he dunked his cell into a jar of paint thinner because his ex was calling too much.”

Lorelai and Miss Patty could only stare at him as he threw out those stories without batting an eyelid.

Luckily the phone was charged up. Tony immediately started dialing. Unfortunately for him, Miss Patty grabbed the phone away from him and put it on speaker, giving him a warning look. A look that absolutely threatened Tony with a fate worse than death if he tore his stitches or hurt himself in any way trying to get his phone back. Tony sighed, staying put.

“Yeah,” that gruff male voice picked up on the first ring.

“Boss, it’s me,” Tony spoke up.

“Dragonfly. Are you secure?”

“Kind of?”

“The fuck does that mean?”

“That means he took a bullet to his side and is fighting an infection because he left it in for too long,” Miss Patty said sternly.

“Who the fuck is _this?_ ”

“This is Hot Lips Houlahan,” Miss Patty said, making Tony giggle.

“Dragonfly?” the voice asked.

“Yeah. Nurse Houlahan here patched me up,” Tony chimed in. “Miss Kitty got her involved.”

Lorelai grimaced and pointed to herself, mouthing ‘Miss Kitty?’ at Tony who nodded happily at her. She rolled her eyes.

“He can’t drive anywhere. The fever comes and goes and he’s not lucid enough to drive for very long,” Miss Patty said.

“Friendlies, boss,” Tony added. “But civilians. Is it still too hot for me to show my face?”

“Yeah. The Hartford safe house is still a no go. Keep your head down. We’ll resolve this Charlie Foxtrot in the next twenty four hours.”

“He’ll need IV antibiotics for at least that long,” Miss Patty was firm. “Or your Dragonfly will have some serious issues.”

There was a long sigh. “I hear you, Houlahan,” the voice finally said.

“I’ll figure something out, Boss,” Tony told the man.

“Don’t get dead. I don’t want to train a new SFA.”

“I know. Plus Katie would be so smug.”

There was a snort. “She’s not ready to take your place.”

“Good to hear you’re not planning on replacing me just yet.”

There was an impatient noise. “Just take care of yourself, Dragonfly.”

“You know I will.”

“Thank you, Houlahan, for taking care of my man,” the man’s thanks were gruff but sincere.

“You’d like her, Boss,” Tony winked at Miss Patty. “She’s even a redhead.”

“Today, I am,” Miss Patty fussed with her henna-colored hair.

“Fuck you, Dragonfly. Watch your six.” The call ended abruptly and Tony gave them a bright smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll have the next chapter tomorrow! Hope y'all are liking this story so far.
> 
> But in the meantime, today is 17 November, and it is the third anniversary of the first story I ever posted on AO3! Three years of this, and I'm still having so much fun.
> 
> Thank you all for all of your support and friendship. You are all amazing! <3 <3


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

[](https://i.imgur.com/rODQJRL.png)

_“Fuck you, Dragonfly. Watch your six.” The call ended abruptly and Tony gave them a bright smile._

“He’s in a good mood,” he grinned. “Sounds like they’re close to resolving our issues.”

“ _That’s_ your boss in a good mood?” Lorelai raised an eyebrow.

“Oh yeah,” Tony looked pleased. “He’s definitely happy. And he definitely has a thing for redheads.” The last sentence was for Miss Patty.

“Even though you got shot?” Lorelai asked, and Miss Patty fluffed her hair and simpered a little.

“I’m still alive, aren’t I?” he nodded. “I still need to get out of here, though. They might start asking around at hotels and it would suck if I brought these people down to your inn.”

“You’re not fit to drive anywhere,” Miss Patty frowned at him.

“I know, I know. Fever. Antibiotics. I heard you,” Tony bit his lip, and Lorelai couldn’t believe how his dimples appeared when he did that.

“You could stay at my place for the next twenty four hours,” Lorelai found herself offering. “Until the antibiotics do their work.”

“ _What?_ ” Both Miss Patty and Tony exclaimed in unison.

“I’m just saying, Rory’s safely at Yale. There’s no one else to endanger. If you teach me how to change his IV, he’ll be set for another day.”

Miss Patty nodded thoughtfully. “I can discreetly swing by to help you tomorrow.”

“That would be awesome. Thank you, Miss Patty.”

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Tony whined.

“Nope,” Lorelai told him.

“You should take him home now while he’s relatively well,” Patty told her.

Tony sat on the bed, helplessly watching as the two women packed everything up, including his weapons, and Lorelai stuffed all of the bloodied sheets and emptied the trash filled with medical waste into a trash bag. Tony was wearing the t-shirt and sweatpants and Lorelai helped him get his shoes back on and pulled a hoodie out of the duffel for him to put on over his t-shirt.

“I’m gonna have to charge you for the towels,” Lorelai gave him an apologetic look.

Tony laughed. “Here,” he handed her a credit card with the Hollingsworth name on it. “Go nuts. I can’t ever repay you.”

“The cash you gave me is enough.”

“No, put the credit card on record. At least that way it won’t look weird, like I walked in off the street and paid with cash. That could be a red flag if someone came looking for me.”

“I can even backdate a reservation for you, if you like,” Lorelai nodded. “That way if someone looks on the system, it’ll look normal.”

In no time at all, the room looked cleaned out and Lorelai ran the garbage bags down to her jeep, not wanting to dump incriminating evidence in the inn dumpsters. She figured she’d keep everything in her garage until it was safe for her to throw it out. Or maybe even get it incinerated somewhere. She’d have to figure that out. Then she and Miss Patty carefully helped Tony down the back stairs, not wanting to risk the elevator.

“Might need to scrub your security vids,” Tony panted, one hand pressed against his injured side, eyes flicking up to the cameras along the hallways.

“Uh, we haven’t actually hooked up the video yet,” Lorelai made a face. “The inn’s still a work in progress.”

“Well, that’s one less thing you’ll need to wipe clean,” Miss Patty winked at her.

“Good point.”

They helped him into the jeep, and Miss Patty hung up his IV on the handle above the door on the passenger side. Tony was trying to keep a brave face but Lorelai could see that the walk down the stairs had really winded him.

“Go do what you need to do to mess with the computers, Lorelai,” Miss Patty told her. “I’ll stay with him until you get back.”

Lorelai nodded and ran off, sneaking into her office and doing what she could to make it look like Tony didn’t just walk in off the street, the way he had. She didn’t check him out, leaving the credit card on record, thinking it would look better if he checked out in the morning rather than late at night. She could swing by the inn and do that tomorrow. Then she ran back out to the jeep where Tony and Miss Patty seemed to be deep in conversation, Miss Patty sitting in the driver’s seat. Luckily Lorelai had parked in the back where no one would see them.

“You’re not a local PD guy,” Miss Patty was saying when Lorelai opened the driver’s side door.

Tony smirked at her.

“Hmm… Not anymore?” Patty guessed.

Tony shrugged, although Lorelai thought maybe Patty might have guessed that right.

“You’re definitely not CIA. Undercover of some sort, though. US Marshals?” Patty continued.

Tony shrugged again, lips quirking upwards.

“No,” Miss Patty narrowed her eyes. “I’ll keep thinking. Lorelai, you remember how to change his IV?”

Lorelai nodded.

“Call if you need me, sweetie,” Lorelai helped Miss Patty down and hugged and kissed her. “I’d be happy to come over in the middle of the night to help out such a handsome young fellow,” Miss Patty winked lasciviously at Tony.

Lorelai watched as the man blushed a little and winked back, unable to stop himself from grinning from ear to ear.

“Jason Bourne and Hot Lips Houlahan,” Lorelai gave an exaggerated sigh.

“I told you, I _remember_ stuff,” Tony objected. “And like I said, I’m gritty. Guy Pearce instead of Matt Damon.”

“You wish, honey,” Miss Patty told him. “You’re a sweetheart, just like Matt Damon.”

“At least give me Matt Damon in _The Departed_ ,” Tony grumbled, giving the movie title the correct Bostonite pronunciation of ‘de-PAH-ted’.

“Good night, Jason Bourne. Good night Miss Kitty. See you both in the morning,” Miss Patty swept away majestically leaving both Lorelai and Tony staring at each other in bemusement.

Lorelai started the jeep and drove home, dropping Tony off a few lots away from her house, and asking him to wait for her to come back for him. She was going to park her car in the driveway, the way she normally did, and bring in the supplies all stuffed in her ridiculously large purse. Then she would draw all her curtains and sneak out the back door, walking Tony to her house through the woods behind her house. This way Babette wouldn’t see Lorelai unloading a good looking injured man and herding him into her house. She looked in the rear view mirror, trying to spot Tony where he’d gotten off, carrying the IV bag in his hand, but he’d disappeared into the darkness.

She got home, went through the house drawing all the curtains and blinds, and then she grabbed a flashlight and walked through the woods. She was calling Tony’s name softly when the man appeared out of the darkness, making her squeal and jump in fright.

“What the _hell!_ ” she whispered angrily. “How did you _do_ that?”

“It’s a talent. Can we go now?”

Lorelai saw that Tony was starting to look pale again, even in the dim light. He had his gun out and pointed at his feet, the IV bag in his other hand. Lorelai took the bag and helped him back to her house. By the time they got to her living room, Tony was leaning heavily on her. She built him a nest of blankets and pillows on the couch and settled in with the _Fellowship of the Ring_ DVD in the player.

Tony fell into a restless sleep not long into the movie and his temperature spiked. Lorelai spent the rest of the movie sponging him down with cool washcloths, trying to keep his temperature down. Finally he was sleeping. Lorelai changed out his IV before she settled down on the floor, leaning her head against her couch and falling into an exhausted sleep.

The rest of the night was spent like that. When Tony’s fever spiked and he mumbled restlessly, she sponged him down with a cool cloth, and she changed out his IV antibiotics on schedule. But by the time morning rolled around, Lorelai was beyond exhausted.

\---------------------------------------

“ _Mom!_ ”

She startled awake at the sound of her daughter calling for her.

“Mom, what the hell is going on?” Rory was in the house and Lorelai looked around, barely awake. She found herself on the floor, her head had been on the couch and apparently Tony’s fingers were tangled in her hair. Tony seemed to be sound asleep still.

“Coffee,” Lorelai groaned.

Rory jiggled the gigantic to go cup that Lorelai recognized came from Luke’s and she grinned at her daughter. “Mom?” Rory demanded. “You have a bedroom. I don’t need to walk in on you like this.”

“Shh,” Lorelai hushed her, stifling an inappropriate giggle at the thought of Rory walking in on her and Tony. But in truth she really wasn’t focused on Rory that much. She was too busy trying to disentangle Tony’s fingers from her hair while simultaneously gulping down coffee.

Tony made a noise of protest as she finally got herself free and his eyes fluttered open. “What the fuck is going on?” he grumbled.

“ _Seriously?_ ” Rory was giving them both the death glare. “You couldn’t take him to your bedroom? You had to have him out here where anyone could stumble over the two of you?”

Lorelai found herself blushing because she hadn’t had the chance to ‘have’ Tony, out here, or anywhere else, and she really wouldn’t mind having him at this point. Although not with her daughter looking at her with such disapproval.

Tony gave Rory a glance but Lorelai knew that he’d taken in every detail of her daughter in that moment. “Sister?” he asked, his voice rough with sleep.

“Daughter,” Rory asserted.

Tony turned and gave Rory a longer look this time before he nodded at Lorelai. “This is the person you said was at Yale?”

Lorelai nodded, blushing at the approving look Tony gave her. He didn’t comment on the fact that she didn’t look old enough to have a daughter in college, didn’t check Rory out as if she was fresh meat, none of the usual things that immediately got her defensive. He just seemed to accept that Rory was her daughter and in fact, his focus seemed to be that she’d done a good job raising her daughter since she was at Yale.

Rory rolled her eyes. “I knew there was something up with you at dinner last night,” she sighed. “Can I talk to you in the kitchen, Mom?”

“Is there more coffee?” Tony asked hopefully.

Rory stomped over and handed him hers, which made Lorelai raise her eyebrows. “Drink this and be quiet. I need to talk to my mother.”

“You tell her that it’s inappropriate of her to have a gentleman caller over while you’re busy and away at college because you know, she’s a grown woman and absolutely not allowed to have members of the opposite sex in her house without you to chaperon her,” Tony yelled as Rory dragged Lorelai out of the room. “And bring back the cream and sugar when you come back in here because I’m not a Marine and this coffee needs cream and sugar!”

“Blasphemy!” both Lorelai and Rory yelled at him.

When the kitchen door was closed, Rory leaned in and began whispering angrily. “What the hell, Mom? Why is there a strange man in our living room?”

“He needed a place to crash.”

“You own an inn. There are tons of rooms there. Can’t he pay for a room? And is he a drug addict? Is he detoxing here and that’s why you have him in the living room instead of your bedroom? Why didn’t you just send him to rehab?” Rory’s voice was rising with every question.

“I’m not a drug addict!” Tony’s voice floated in from the living room, making Lorelai snort with laughter.

“This is a private conversation!” Rory yelled back.

“Then you need to learn to whisper better! Use your inside voice, huh? I’m putting the movie back on so I don’t accidentally eavesdrop on this conversation you’re having that is absolutely _not_ about me,” Tony responded, making Lorelai choke down another giggle. A moment later, Lorelai heard the sounds of the Uruk Hai doing battle and that was one of her favorite scenes of the whole movie.

“You’re watching movies with a stranger and a drug addict?” Rory exclaimed.

“He’s a friend and he’s not an addict.”

“Why is there an IV stuck in his hand? Is that methadone?”

“Antibiotics. He’s injured and he needed a place to crash that was quiet.”

“So you brought him home? How do you even know him? _Do_ you even know him, Mom?”

“He’s waiting for his people to come pick him up,” Lorelai improvised. “He just needed care overnight.”

“Why didn’t he just go to the hospital? What kind of injury? Was he in a bar fight?”

“Bar fight?” Lorelai scoffed. “In Stars Hollow? Have you lost your mind?”

Rory nodded and conceded the point. “Why didn’t he just go to the hospital?”

Lorelai sighed. “Look, Rory, he just needed to keep a low profile.”

“Is he a wanted man?” Rory shrieked.

“Well, he’s one of the good guys.”

“But bad guys are looking for him?”

Lorelai grimaced. “Kind of?”

Rory rolled her eyes. “You get him out of here, Mom. This isn’t safe for you.”

The kitchen door swung open and Tony stood there, leaning on the hat rack that the IV bag was hanging from. “I told her that yesterday,” he told Rory, his tone serious now.

“I’m talking to my mother privately,” Rory told him haughtily.

“And I understand that. Lorelai, thanks for everything, I’ll sneak out the back,” he moved to pull his IV out but Lorelai yanked his arm back.

“Don’t you dare,” she growled. “I’ll sic Miss Patty on you again if you do that. And I’ll let you explain to her what you were trying to do.”

“Lorelai,” Tony sighed. “Your daughter is right. And I’m fine now.”

“Twenty four hours with the IV antibiotics, Miss Patty said. You should leave tonight at the earliest. Besides, you’ll be under the cover of darkness then,” Lorelai told him, unable to stop sounding a bit dramatic. “Daylight isn’t your friend.”

“You have watched _way_ too many movies, Mom,” Rory groaned.

Lorelai gave her a dirty look.

“And you got Miss Patty involved in all this?” Rory was disappointed.

“Lorelai,” Tony told her. “I’m getting my shoes on and getting out of your hair.”

“I doubt you can bend over to get them on, Double-Oh-Seven,” Lorelai snapped at him.

“Shaken, not stirred?” Tony’s Sean Connery impression was actually decent, making Lorelai smile.

“No, Tony,” Lorelai told him. “You’re not getting your shoes on. You’re getting back on that couch. Right now.” She turned to her daughter. “Rory, look, I appreciate what you’re doing but you need to go back to your dorm and stay there this weekend, OK?”

“Because it’s not safe here, right?” Rory rolled her eyes.

“The fact that you weren’t supposed to be here was one reason why I thought Tony would be safe here,” Lorelai told her. “Now he’s going to worry that you might tell someone that some strange guy is at your mother’s house and they might come after him and come here for him. And you’re making him feel like he should leave!”

“He _should_ leave! He’s endangering you by being here!” Rory retorted.

“I insisted that he stay and get better.”

“Ladies…” Tony tried to get their attention but both Rory and Lorelai ignored him.

She couldn’t believe that Rory was calling her out in front of her guest. Whether or not it was safe, Lorelai wanted to do the right thing. The right thing was to give this poor man a place to shelter, to recover from his infected gunshot wound, for god’s sake.

Rory was still ranting on about stranger danger, and other incredibly logical things when Lorelai flicked a glance at Tony and realized that he was the color of his white t-shirt and he was starting to weave on his feet. He looked about ready to pass out and she sprang to get her arm around him, supporting him.

“Whoa, dude, I really think you should sit down a sec,” she said.

Tony shook his head weakly.

“Shut up. Rory, grab the coat rack and bring it with you.” Without looking to see if Rory would obey her or not, Lorelai helped Tony back to the couch, Rory trailing behind with the coat rack. Lorelai got him back on the couch and helped him settle back down into the pillows and covered him with the blankets. She felt his forehead.

“You’re in no shape to leave,” she told Tony. “Fever’s spiking again. And Rory, I am an adult and this was my decision. I need you not to make things more difficult, and I need you to not say anything to anyone until Tony is back with his people.”

“Tonight,” Tony mumbled softly. “I leave tonight, latest.”

“Shh,” Lorelai smoothed his hair. “We’ll talk about this later, and let Miss Patty decide.”

“’S not safe for you,” he muttered.

“I can take care of myself.”

He sighed and relaxed. Lorelai waited a moment before she stood, grabbed Rory’s arm and dragged her back into the kitchen.

“Rory, he needs help,” Lorelai whispered, not wanting to her patient to overhear.

“How do you even know that he’s a good guy and not a bad guy?” Rory frowned.

“I just know, OK?” Lorelai sighed. She couldn’t explain it, but she just knew. There was no way that Tony was the bad guy in this. He was a government operative. Miss Patty agreed with her.

Rory gave her a long look before she sighed and nodded. “I’ll stay, too, then.”

“No, Rory. Please. I wouldn’t have offered him a place to stay if you were home,” Lorelai sighed. “Your safety comes first.”

“What about yours?”

“He’ll take care of me if someone comes here.”

“Does he have a _gun?_ ” Rory’s voice was getting loud again.

“Shh,” Lorelai hushed her sternly. There was no way she was going to tell her daughter that Tony had not one gun but _two_ , and also the knives that he had on his person. She was definitely _not_ going to tell Rory any of that. “Go back to school, honey. Don’t tell anyone what’s going on here. I’ll call you when the coast is clear.”

“All right, Bugsy,” Rory snapped back.

That made them both pause for a moment and they both broke into slightly hysterical giggles.

“Is he CIA?” Rory asked, her tone finally less judgmental.

“He says he would never join the CIA. But he hasn’t told me who he works for, for my own safety.”

“That’s what they always say,” Rory griped.

Lorelai hugged her daughter. “Can you do me a huge favor?”

“Go get you more of Luke’s coffee before I go back to New Haven?” Rory guessed.

“And…?”

“And pick up some breakfast too.”

“That’s my girl.”

Rory was grumbling but she left after taking a long look at the man sleeping on her mother’s couch. “He sure is very pretty though, huh?” she remarked when she returned with enough coffee for four people.

“Doesn’t hurt,” Lorelai agreed, running her eye over him, trying to curb the wave of lust that washed over her.

“Ew, _Mom!_ I’m right here!” Rory pushed the bag that smelled delicious into Lorelai’s hand, gave her a quick hug before she quietly left.

Lorelai scarfed down some pancakes and left some warming in the oven for Tony. She showered and dressed and Tony slept right through it all. It was a couple of hours later before Tony woke again and that was because Miss Patty was changing his bandages. Lorelai helped Miss Patty with the bandages and then went out to run a few errands while the older woman stayed with their charge. First she went to the Dragonfly to check in with Sookie and Michel and see that it was all running smoothly. She also checked Tony out of his room and settled his bill. Then she stopped by Luke’s diner and talked at him for a little bit, went to pick up more first aid supplies according to Miss Patty’s list, and stocked up on sports drinks and a few other things at Doose’s before she went back home to find Miss Patty and Tony playing cards, and a half eaten plate of pancakes by Tony’s side. She smiled at the two and put away the groceries.

They finished their hand of poker and Miss Patty left with hugs, air kisses, and a waft of her floral perfume.

“She’s quite a lady,” Tony grinned at her, looking bemused at the exposure to Miss Patty now that he was more awake and with the program.

Lorelai blew out a breath and nodded in agreement, sipping her coffee greedily.

“You remind me of my boss. Killer blue eyes, and an addiction to coffee,” Tony shook his head.

“Gibbs, right?”

Tony sighed and nodded.

“He has killer blue eyes?”

Tony nodded, sighing again.

“So… you and he…?” Lorelai was hesitant. She didn’t want to assume that just because Tony wasn’t dead that he wouldn’t be gay. He’d compared her eyes to his boss’s after all.

Tony laughed. “Oh god, no. He’d never give me a second look. I’m like his idiot stepchild,” he said easily.

“But you… wouldn’t mind?” Was Tony gay? Because of course, that was Lorelai’s luck. Meet the most attractive guy she’s seen in a while, and they even have a rapport, but he turns out to be gay.

Tony considered it for a moment. “It would probably blow my mind. But the man lost a wife and kid to a drug cartel assassin, and has since had three ex-wives. So while it would probably blow my mind for a second, I’d end up as good as ex-wife number four in no time and I’m not really looking for that,” he wrinkled his nose. “I’ve already been left at the altar once, and once was enough.”

“The altar?” Gay marriage was only legal in Massachusetts, Lorelai thought.

“Oh yeah. Wendy didn’t like my dedication to work,” he waved it away. “Years ago. Water under the bridge.”

Wendy was a girl’s name. Lorelai pursed her lips and just stared at Tony.

Tony caught her look. “Are you doing the mental math – Gibbs, who you’ve spoken to, is obviously a guy. And Wendy sounds like she should be a woman?”

Lorelai blushed. Sometimes she was way too obvious for her own good.

Tony laughed. “Don’t sweat it. I’m just one of those people for whom gender isn’t a concern,” he smiled. “I’m flexible in that way.”

OK. So Lorelai wasn’t out of the running. She blew out a breath in relief.

“Is that a problem for you?” Tony asked carefully.

“Is what a problem?” Lorelai didn’t understand what he was asking.

“Is my flexibility with gender a problem for you?”

Lorelai burst out laughing. “Oh god no,” she shook her head. “At this point I’m just excited that you could possibly swing my way.”

There was a moment of silence. “Why…? Are you interested?” Tony quirked up an eyebrow. “Even with the whole…” he gestured to himself while making a face.

“Depends. Are you seeing anyone right now?” Lorelai had to ask.

Tony gave her a mischievous look. “No. Why? Are you?”

“Single,” Lorelai declared. “Plus you just met my kid. She’s a sophomore at Yale and I’m still in my thirties. Plus I own my own business, I’m pretty mouthy, and I don’t like people telling me what to do. Men usually have a problem with that.”

Tony gave her a look that could not be mistaken for anything but lascivious. “I don’t have a problem with any of that,” he said slowly. “Well, except for the fact that right now I just want to make sure I haven’t put you in danger just by meeting you at this inopportune time.”

Lorelai gave him a grin. “Well, that’s good that you don’t have a problem with me.”

“Not even a one,” Tony assured her. “But I do need to get my act together and get out of town so I don’t bring any dangerous loose ends to your neck of the woods.”

“Not until Miss Patty says you can go, and at the earliest that’s tonight,” Lorelai shot back.

Tony sighed. “I guess.”

“Well then I guess, we’ll just have to think of something to do else to pass the time,” Lorelai gave him a wicked grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please forgive my tardiness with your comments. I will be replying to your wonderful comments shortly, I promise. I've read and appreciated them all! Thank you for your kindness and support! <3


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

[](https://i.imgur.com/sn2geME.png)

_”Well then I guess, we’ll just have to think of something else to pass the time,” Lorelai gave him a wicked grin._

Tony’s response was a leer and a wink.

“Not today, big boy,” Lorelai patted him. “Let’s hold off until you’re less death door and more Men’s Health cover boy?”

Tony laughed at that, not taking offense at all. “Who says I’m that kind of guy anyway?” he smiled. “Well, since you have all these pesky conditions on certain things, hmm… how about a movie?” Tony suggested.

“A man after my own heart!” Lorelai clapped her hands.

“Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” Tony did a decent Bogart impression now.

“What shall we watch?” Lorelai asked.

“I don’t know. But more importantly, don’t we need popcorn? I know I was out of it last night to demand popcorn before we started _The Fellowship_ , but we need popcorn for some serious movie watching. Seriously, Lorelai,” he turned solemn green eyes at her. “I’m not kidding.”

Lorelai’s heart skipped a beat. Men usually indulged her in her movie watching habits, and found it annoying that she had all these little ceremonies around it, like popcorn and snacks – sometimes coordinating the snacks with the movie, but Tony was actually serious about the popcorn. No man had shared in her passion for proper movie watching etiquette before, not even Christopher. He’d went along with her foibles, but it wasn’t his thing. With Tony, it seemed to be a shared passion about little rituals surrounding movie watching. It was a heady feeling. “I’m on it,” she told Tony. “You pick the movie.”

“As you wish,” Tony smirked at her, making her heart stutter again. The twinkle in Tony’s eye made it obvious that he wasn’t just saying those words, but he was actually quoting _The Princess Bride_ , which of course, made Lorelai weak in the knees. Could this man _be_ any more attractive?

As it turned out, he could. He had picked out the _Casablanca_ , _His Girl Friday_ , _Arsenic and Old Lace_ DVDs. And just for kicks, he said, he’d set aside _The Breakfast Club_ and _The Princess Bride_. She’d thought he would choose _Die Hard_ or some other action type movie, because she did have a few of her favorite action flicks in her collection, and granted, she didn’t have the hugest movie collection, preferring to rent her DVDs. But Tony had managed to choose some of her absolute favorites.

Tony saw her stunned look and started to look hesitant. “Is there a problem?” he asked softly.

“God, no. I’m just wondering why I can’t just keep you,” she blurted out, which mortified her, because way to be cool, Lorelai.

“Oh,” Tony said, and then he blushed. And for fuck’s sake, Lorelai didn’t know when a man’s blush had made her ache to her core. “You liked the selections?”

“Definitely,” Lorelai could hear the insecurity in Tony’s voice now and wanted to assure him that she was happy.

“Yeah, I saw that you had _Willy Wonka_ , too, but I can’t watch that unless I have a ton of junk food. And I don’t think I’m in any shape for a ton of junk food right now,” Tony patted his injured side gingerly.

Lorelai gasped in wonder. “Seriously! Next thing I know, you’re going to tell me you like _Pippi Longstocking!_ ”

“Only the original 1969 version, _Pippi Långstrump_ , directed by Olle Hellbom,” Tony declared firmly. “None of the remakes.”

“Can I keep you? Seriously?” Lorelai stared him in wonder.

“You’d better make sure I’m housebroken first,” Tony winked at her.

They ended up watching movies for the rest of the afternoon, snuggled together under the blankets. At one point Lorelai found herself leaning on Tony’s shoulder, his arm around her, holding her close, as they both mouthed the rush of words to _His Girl Friday_. They both also talked about just about everything, from things related to the movies they were watching, to things about Rory, Rory’s various boyfriends, and Friday Night Dinners at her parents’ house which had started as a condition for her parents paying for Rory’s education at Chilton.

“Chilton?” Tony muttered softly to himself. “Shit, I think I dated a girl who went to Chilton when I was at Choate. That was the last school I got kicked out of right before I got sent to Remington.”

“The military academy?” Lorelai was shocked.

“In Rhode Island,” Tony made a face and nodded. “Yup. What can I say? Problem child, mother died young, father neglectful. I was a really good kid for a long time but by the time high school rolled around, being good hadn’t gotten me anywhere so I tried being bad instead.”

“But military school?” Lorelai made a face.

“Turned out to be a good thing,” Tony said, a soft smile playing at his lips. “Met this basketball coach that changed my life. He really hammered into me that the only person I was hurting with my behavior was myself. I wasn’t affecting my father. I was only ruining my own future. I played basketball for him that year, and I ended up getting an athletic scholarship to college after that. Which was a good thing, since my dad wasn’t going to pay for college. He’d cut me off when I was twelve, but my mom had left instructions in her will that her estate would cover my schooling. But apparently he was done with paying for ‘my shit’ after I graduated high school.” He made a face as he made the air quotes with his fingers.

“Why didn’t your mom’s estate cover your college costs?”

Tony sighed, pursing his lips, and Lorelai’s heart jumped when the dimples appeared. Fuck, she’d never realized that she had such a thing for dimples in a man.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to pry,” Lorelai hurriedly backed up, seeing the sadness on Tony’s face.

He shook his head, giving her a small smile. “My dad’s lawyers informed me that there was nothing left of her estate by the time I was ready for college,” he said softly. “Dad had it all tied up in ‘investments’. None of it was available to pay for school. According to them, my junior year of high school told my dad I wasn’t college bound so he did something productive with the money. I figure that was their way of telling me that he’d either lost it all playing poker, or he’d found some loophole somewhere to stop me from getting anything more from my mom’s estate. Both are equally likely.”

“That’s _awful!_ ” Lorelai gasped, outraged. She had left the Gilmore fortune behind voluntarily, to live her own life. Her parents hadn’t actually refused to pay for her needs. She had just not wanted the conditions that came with everything. The price tag for all that money ended up being too high for her. But it sounded as if Tony hadn’t even been given the option.

“Eh,” Tony waved it away. “Made me who I am, really. Better to stand on your own two feet than to be beholden to someone for something so fickle as money. Money isn’t the end all and be all. At least I don’t have to keep hearing him harp about how he wasted money on my college education or some such, since he didn’t pay for it.” He grinned. “Plus, I learned to be who I am without him, and I definitely don’t want to _be_ him. My dad’s been remarried and divorced who knows how many times, now. And last I heard, my newest stepmother is closer to Rory’s age than mine,” he made a face. “That’s not a scene I need to be involved with.”

Lorelai nodded and put her arms around him, holding him close. She found herself burying her face in his neck, breathing him in. Tony kissed her hair and rubbed her back soothingly.

“Where else did you get kicked out of?” Lorelai asked, trying to ease the mood a little.

As it turned out, Tony had been expelled from quite a few of the most elite boarding schools in New England, and Lorelai had some connections with given her own upbringing. Lorelai talked about her own coming of age, and Rory, and making her own way, even though she’d been headed to expulsion from school for rebelliousness. They bonded over their juvenile delinquency, love of movies, and shared rebellious attitude. Lorelai ordered Chinese food and they ate in the living room while watching movies. Tony didn’t even bat an eyelash at how much food Lorelai ordered, happily chowing down on different dishes. Being with Tony was just so easy. They always had things to talk about, their conversation felt so organic and unforced, and Tony got her jokes and her references, he was well read and articulate, and funny. He wasn’t pompous about his knowledge like some people Lorelai knew were, he was pretty easy going and didn’t seem to have the kind of ego that meant that he needed to feel superior to Lorelai. He was just fun and fascinating. Lorelai felt like she learned so much about him during this time, even though she didn’t know what his last name was or who he worked for, or if she would ever see him again after this little episode was over. But she didn’t want to think about it and kept her mind on the now instead of the future.

But finally day turned to night and the sky darkened. Tony had had a good afternoon, mostly fever free, with no more temperature spikes. He insisted on taking a shower, which Lorelai made sure they cleared with Miss Patty, before she helped him to her bathroom. He came back looking refreshed, his hair spiking up now that it wasn’t weighted down with sweat and grime. He put his shoes on and Lorelai helped him into his hoodie. He checked his knives – one strapped to his ankle, another strapped to his arm this time, and he had a shoulder holster and a smaller gun in a holster on his other ankle.

“You look about ready to take on the mob,” Lorelai joked.

Tony gave her a smile. “Been there, done that,” he said softly. “Remind me to tell you that story, one day.”

Lorelai’s eyes were wide. “No way!” she breathed.

“Way, but again, that’s a story for another day.”

“Will there be another day?” Lorelai asked.

“I sure hope so,” Tony’s voice was soft and his smile was tender. He picked up his duffel bag with a grunt and leaned in towards her.

Lorelai stared at his beautiful green eyes, and his amazing lips. Tony was so hot it was ridiculous. He had a hand on her shoulder, and she couldn’t help but lean into his body, raising her face up to him. Warm fingers cupped her chin, and Tony’s green eyes flicked down to her lips before he licked his own lips and slowly moved closer. He was a half inch away from her before he stopped, and Lorelai surged forward to press her lips against his. Tony’s soft moan made Lorelai’s pussy throb and ache, and she could feel herself getting wet, and when he pulled her close and buried his fingers in her long hair and licked into her mouth, she opened up willingly and clutched at him, deepening the kiss. Tony plundered her mouth and their tongues dueled as she, in turn, explored his mouth, nibbling, licking, sucking, tasting each other.

They pulled away, breathless, and Tony grinned. “I find myself thankful that you had a spare toothbrush that I used before we did this,” he whispered.

Lorelai couldn’t help but laugh at that, and her laugh was smothered when he kissed her again. This time his mouth ravaged hers and she was plastered right up against him, one hand in his short hair, one on his toned ass.

“I’ll see you again,” Tony told her as he pulled away, looking regretful.

Lorelai nodded, “You’d better.”

He gave her a wide smile. “Tell Rory I said hi.”

Lorelai rolled her eyes. “I will.”

“See ya, Lorelai Gilmore, owner of the Dragonfly Inn,” Tony whispered, opening the back door and starting to step out.

“Take care of yourself and be safe, Dragonfly,” Lorelai whispered back. He gave her a wink and a jaunty salute before he slipped away into the darkness.

Lorelai closed her door and sighed. Tony was gone and she didn’t even know his last name. What the hell was wrong with this picture? She was already pining for a man that had just left her house, and she didn’t even know his name. He was amazing, and perfect, and hot and sexy and mysterious and he still could turn out to be a criminal, even though in her heart of hearts Lorelai knew he was a good guy. But still. It wasn’t like the man had flashed his badge or whatever it was secret government operatives carried at her. She knew that the last name he had used at the inn was fake so she wasn’t going to be able to find him using that name.

God. Was she actually going to look him up? This man who had spent the night on her couch, and with whom she had spent an enjoyable day watching movies and just talking? One kiss and was Lorelai Gilmore putty in this man’s hands? A puddle of goo at his feet?

She sighed. Apparently she was. She should really call Rory to let her know that all was well and Tony had left, but she didn’t want to. Doing that would make it real and she wasn’t sure she could handle real right then. Instead, she pulled a carton of Chinese food out of the fridge, dumped it in a bowl and microwaved it. She needed to comfort eat now.

She brought the food to the coffee table and decided to watch _His Girl Friday_ again. You couldn’t watch it enough, after all. It had been fun to sit snuggled up with Tony, and they had both mouthed the lines together. Tony wasn’t faking it about the movies. He really did love them. He’d known a bunch of the words to _The Breakfast Club_ , too, and both she and Tony had raised their fist at the same time as Judd Nelson did at the end of that movie, and laughed at each other. She lost herself in memories of their conversations that afternoon.

“Rory was always Anthony Michael Hall,” she’d told him, as the movie was playing. “Did you see how he grew up so nicely? He’s pretty smoking in _The Dead Zone_.”

Tony nodded at that, making a sound of appreciation. It was cool that Tony could appreciate the same good looking men that Lorelai could, too, without Lorelai having to think of him as a girlfriend. Because he did not give her the girlfriend vibe at all. Not even close, with the way her body kept reacting to him. Thank god she wasn’t a man because her almost constant arousal would have been much more obvious if she’d had a penis.

“Yeah, I can see Rory as the Anthony Michael Hall character. She is at Yale, after all,” Tony agreed.

“She’s ridiculously smart. I have no idea how she came from me.”

“I can see it,” he grinned. “But you, you’re Molly Ringwald.”

“I was probably more Molly Ringwald post _Breakfast Club_ , after her exposure to the bad boy,” Lorelai grinned wickedly. “I was never a true princess like she was. Hmm you played basketball, so Emilio Estevez?”

“I wish,” Tony snorted. “At least his father cared enough to yell at him to be better. Mine was pretty absent. Out of sight, out of mind. And I didn’t start playing sports until I was a senior. Not till I was at Remington.”

Lorelai frowned. “So… Judd Nelson?”

“Probably closer to Ally Sheedy for most of my childhood,” Tony snorted. “Freak, that’s me. Then when I got all rebellious, maybe I became more Judd Nelson and then a touch of Emilio after I started sports.”

“You’re practically a whole Breakfast Club detention all by yourself!” Lorelai exclaimed.

“Well between you, me and Rory, we might be,” Tony shot back, making them both laugh.

Which made Lorelai sigh, now that she was sitting on her couch all alone again. She found herself snuggling into the blankets she’d arranged for Tony, breathing in his scent. He smelled good – masculine and clean, of sweat and sunlight and maybe even a little of his infection, which strangely, didn’t detract from how much Lorelai liked his scent. She took another deep breath of the blankets and sighed again. Lorelai would have to take the IV stuff back to Miss Patty’s at some point – probably the next day. Maybe they’d have another emergency and need it. You never knew in Stars Hollow. Better not to deprive anyone else of medication if they needed it. But she was reluctant to, because removing all traces of Tony from her house felt wrong.

She had just started _The Breakfast Club_ again when she heard a noise. She paused the movie, ears perked up. The living room was only lit by the TV. She hadn’t turned the lights on after Tony left.

“Hello?” she called out. Shit, she really should have called her daughter. It was probably her coming back to check on her. “Rory?”

She picked up her phone, but before she could dial anyone, her kitchen door burst open and two men that she had never seen before sprang into the living room, and could that possibly be true? Did they have guns pointed at her? Lorelai felt blood draining from her face, and her heart began pounding. Were these the men who were after Tony? Holy god, they looked absolutely scary! Lorelai was suddenly incredibly grateful that she had managed to convince Rory not to stay because if Rory was in the house right now, it would be that much scarier. She never thought she would say it, but she was glad that Rory was in scary and unsafe old New Haven instead of cozy in their house in Stars Hollow where the only crime that ever occurred was jaywalking and that time Lorelai had run the red light when they first put in that new traffic light.

It was unfathomable that there could be men with guns in Lorelai’s house. She stared at them in shock.

“Where’s the rat?” one of them asked.

“What?” Lorelai couldn’t help but respond. Did these guys learn their dialogs from cheesy mafia movies?

“Agent DiNozzo. Is he in the house?” the other one amended.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lorelai gasped.

“Don’t lie to us!” the first one growled, stepping towards her, slowly and deliberately, and yes, most definitely threateningly.

“Who’s Agent DiNozzo?” Lorelai asked. “I think you’re in the wrong house. The wrong _town_. This is Stars Hollow. There’s nothing here that people like you would be interested in.”

“We found his car, and we tracked him to the Dragonfly Inn,” the guy that was approaching her told her. “That Frenchman at the front desk was happy to tell us about the guy that walked in in the middle of the night.”

Lorelai was going to have to yell at Michel for that, if she lived through this. For one thing, they were supposed to protect the privacy of their guests. They weren’t supposed to be blabbing about them to random strangers, especially those that looked like criminals.

The other man nodded towards the empty IV bag still hanging on the hat stand. “He was injured,” he noted.

“I took him to a hospital earlier today,” Lorelai found herself saying. “He was really bad off and I couldn’t help him here. He needed a real hospital.”

The man kept getting closer to her and Lorelai couldn’t help but stand and start backing away. “Look, he was registered as Anthony Hollingsworth and I never knew his real name,” she told them, as she tried not to stumble over her own furniture. “You guys shot him. He took a turn for the worse so I took him to a hospital in Hartford. I dropped him off at the ER and drove off because I didn’t want to be dragged into this drama.”

The man scoffed.

“I have no idea what is going on so if you guys just leave and never come back, nobody even needs to know you were ever here.” Lorelai didn’t know where these words were coming from, but she had to try to get them out of her house.

The other man gave her an evil look. “You’ve seen our faces,” he told her gently. “Either you tell us where DiNozzo is, or we’ll make you. You won’t like our methods.”

The one that kept coming towards her licked his lips. “You’re one hell of looker. It won’t be a hardship for us to _interrogate_ you.”

Lorelai shuddered at that. She could tell that she was not going to enjoy being interrogated by these two. Her brain was going a mile a minute, trying to figure out if she could make it to the front door before either of them could catch up to her. Or they might just shoot her in the back. She didn’t want to orphan poor Rory when Christopher was such an inconsistent presence in her life. And she didn’t want to leave her at her parents’ mercy, even though Rory was technically already grown up. She stood there, still inching her way backwards as the guy kept getting closer, trying to figure out if she could find a weapon.

The front door crashed open, making her scream and duck.

“Hobson,” Tony’s voice made her turn to look. “Can’t you see your advances are unwelcome? You’re making the lady uncomfortable.”

“DiNozzo,” the one who seemed to be in charge intoned dramatically.

Seriously, could he _be_ any more clichéd? Lorelai’s brain couldn’t help but wonder. She could practically hear the dun dun dunnnn music that should be playing in the background if this were a movie.

“Jerry, I gotta tell you, I wasn’t happy to see you that night,” Tony strolled in, holding his gun, addressing his words to the guy who seemed to be in charge.

“Boris was guarding the front door,” Hobson objected.

“Not anymore, he’s not,” Tony gave him a grin that was all teeth and not at all pleasant. “I suggest you back away from the lady. Both of you should drop your guns and put your hands on your heads.”

“Please,” Hobson scoffed. “You’ve been separated from the herd. You’re injured and you have no backup.”

“Don’t I?” Tony’s grin widened when a red dot appeared on Jerry’s forehead. “Did I mention that my boss is a world class jarhead sniper?”

“And he has killer blue eyes,” Lorelai muttered.

Tony gave her an amused grin. “That’s right, although I’ve decided that yours are way prettier.”

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” Lorelai had to grin back, unable to resist the man’s dimples.

Tony moved closer to her, his gun steady. “Hobson, Jerry, put your guns down and hands on your head. Don’t make me ask you again.”

For a moment, Lorelai thought that it was all going to end peacefully. Jerry slowly put his gun down and raised his hands, lacing his fingers behind his head. But then, Hobson’s expression changed.

“I’m not going back to jail,” he snarled.

It was all a huge whirl but then there was a gunshot and Tony jumped in front of her and slammed backwards into her with a pained grunt. And then Hobson was crumpling to the floor and blood was flowing copiously from his chest and Lorelai had two bullet holes in her front window, corresponding to the two holes in Hobson’s chest.

“You OK, Lorelai?” Tony turned to look at her, keeping his gun trained on Jerry ensuring that the man stayed immobile, hands behind his head. He was still leaning heavily on her. The red dot was now back on his forehead again.

Lorelai could only nod dumbly.

“Stay right where you are, Jerry,” Tony told the other man, who nodded to acknowledge him.

A woman hurried into Lorelai’s house, her badge displayed on her belt, and she handcuffed Jerry. “You OK, Tony?” she called out.

Tony sighed and put an arm around Lorelai’s shoulder, leaning in to sniff her hair. “You always smell so good,” he muttered.

“Are you OK?” Lorelai asked him. Then she saw blood blooming and spreading near his collarbone. “Oh my god! He shot you!”

“Only a little bit,” Tony assured her, before his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he slid down to the floor. Lorelai tried to cushion his fall, but she really couldn’t catch a man who had a few inches and at least fifty pounds on her.

“Call an ambulance!” Lorelai screamed. “Tony! Tony!”

Then it was another confusing whirlwind of activities. The EMTs came and started treating Tony even before they strapped him on a gurney and took him away in an ambulance. Lorelai couldn’t even look at the dead man on the floor of her living room, her neighbors were all clustered at the yellow crime scene tape, and Lorelai was eventually led out of her house and into a dark car with lights flashing in the front and back windows, by a man who showed her his badge and identification – Naval Criminal Investigative Services. Miss Patty would be upset that she didn’t even guess this one, although Lorelai had never heard of them, Lorelai thought slightly hysterically. Although given their proximity to the sub base in Groton, it totally made sense that there would be Navy cops running around.

“I’m Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS,” the man told her, squatting on the ground by the open car door to put himself level with her.

“Gibbs. You’re Tony’s boss?”

Gibbs grunted an affirmative, and Lorelai could clearly see the man’s pretty blue eyes. They were definitely killer, as Tony had described. “You’re Miss Kitty?”

Lorelai started laughing hysterically. “Yeah! Oh god. Is Tony all right?”

“He’s in good hands. And he better be all right or I’ll fucking kill him myself,” Gibbs all but barked at her.

“He saved my life.”

“It’s what he does,” Gibbs told her gruffly.

Lorelai nodded and tried to calm herself.

“Who’s Hot Lips Houlahan?” Gibbs asked.

Lorelai looked around and saw that Miss Patty was waving at her and hopping up and down anxiously. She pointed at her. “That’s her. Miss Patty. She was an Army nurse during the Vietnam War. She patched Tony back together. B-b-before they shot him again,” Lorelai stuttered out the final words. She could only see his crumpled body bleeding profusely on her floor.

Gibbs turned and gestured towards someone and Lorelai saw that Miss Patty was being herded to another one of the dark vehicles.

For the next almost two days, she was kept at the submarine base in Groton, and Gibbs and his team questioned her and Miss Patty. They were also being kept in protective custody at the base until Gibbs’ team was certain that they’d gotten everyone they were searching for. Finally, they were released and Luke and Rory were both there to pick them up.

“Agent Todd,” Lorelai turned to the sweet faced brunette.

“Kate, please,” she smiled at her.

“Is Tony OK?”

In the last two days, no one would answer any of her questions about Tony and how he was doing. Lorelai was almost sick with worry and she couldn’t just leave the base without knowing what had happened to him or if he was even all right.

Kate smiled at her. “He pulled through,” she whispered. “It was a through and through, but it nicked an artery so it was touch and go for a while. But he’ll make a full recovery.”

“Really?” the relief Lorelai felt was unbelievable. Tony was alive. The man who had put himself in between her and a bullet was alive.

“Really,” Kate squeezed her hand. “Don’t worry. He’s like a bad penny. He’ll always turn up.”

“Besides, if he died without my permission, he knows I’ll get to him and kill him with my bare hands,” Gibbs’ voice made them all jump. “DiNozzo’s fine, Ms Gilmore.”

Lorelai nodded, and in the sunlight she could see that Gibbs’ sharp blue eyes were, in fact, quite beautiful, as was the rest of his face. She could see why Tony would like him, although she didn’t really have a thing for silver foxes like Tony apparently did.

“Thank you for taking care of him when we couldn’t get to him,” Kate hugged her and Miss Patty, and then that was it.

Lorelai went home and life went on, the excitement was over, and everything was the same again. Taylor Doose tried to get some inane thing passed at the town meeting that there would be no more gun violence or undercover law enforcement agents running around Stars Hollow, but everyone booed him that time. So that was definitely business as usual. Except, to Lorelai it all felt so dull and colorless now. Lorelai missed Tony in a way that should be impossible for someone that she had only known for a day, most of which he was unconscious for. But they had _connected_. It had been some of the best conversations she’d ever had with a member of the opposite sex. And he’d taken a bullet for her.

Not to mention that smoldering kiss before he left her house? Her toes were still curling at the passion and fire they’d had, and the man was barely even upright and mobile after being shot. How would the kiss have been if he had been at a hundred percent? Lorelai suspected that it would have been the kind of kiss that would magically end in nudity and sex and with any luck, multiple orgasms, and well, she really wasn’t opposed to that at all. Not even a little bit.

But yet, nothing had changed. The inn was slowly becoming more successful, and Rory was happy at Yale. They continued to have Friday Night Dinners, and the occasional movie nights, and Lorelai still loved her life.

Still, Lorelai kept feeling as though something was missing. And she might have developed a tremendous and chronic masturbation habit, remembering the kiss, Tony’s eyes, the warmth of his body, how he felt when he wrapped her in his arms to kiss her, the taste of his mouth. Yeah… She definitely needed the memories and the orgasms, even the lonely ones, to help her sleep at night. And this was definitely not a subject she would ever discuss with her daughter, no matter how grown up she was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter (epilogue) tomorrow! We're almost done :D


	6. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

[](https://i.imgur.com/rODQJRL.png)

Lorelai was sitting in Luke’s diner, morosely looking at her food and trying not to sigh aloud. It had been a couple months since the events surrounding Tony and the incident at her house but sadly, she hadn’t gotten over it. Hadn’t gotten over Tony. NCIS had actually been amazing. Once her house was released from being a crime scene, they had recommended a cleaning company specializing in crime scene cleanups and she had been told to send them the cleaning bill, and they had come through completely. Her living room was the cleanest it had ever been, no trace that a dead body had ever lain there, the window replaced, and NCIS headquarters in DC had worked with her homeowners insurance and reimbursed her for the cost of the cleaning and repairs within a week of her sending the bill to them.

Everything had been put back in place, except for, apparently her heart. Somehow Lorelai had managed to lose it to a man she had only known for a day, and she hadn’t even known his real last name until he’d been shot – again. She had tried to look him up in the phone book, but he wasn’t listed in Groton, or Hartford. For all she knew, he wasn’t even based out of Connecticut. She’d found the listing for an Anthony DiNozzo in New York, but when she called, she spoke to a secretary that sounded as ditzy as anything and she was sure it wasn’t her Tony. She didn’t think that she should call the main NCIS number and just ask for Agent DiNozzo. It didn’t seem right.

So she had done nothing except mope for the past month. Even Rory had lost hope of new ideas to try to cheer her up. So there she was, sitting at Luke’s diner, moping at her cheeseburger and fries when the bell on the door rang cheerfully.

“Sit anywhere,” Luke’s voice boomed from behind the counter.

Lorelai wasn’t paying attention until she realized that the diner had grown silent. She looked up and saw that a tall figure in what looked to be a classy and expensive looking designer suit was approaching her table. He pushed the stylish sunglasses perched on his nose up into his perfectly styled hair as he walked to her table.

“Is this seat taken?” Tony asked, grinning at her, beautiful green eyes filled with hope.

“What are you doing here?” Lorelai stood so abruptly that her chair fell over backwards. Tony was around the table in a flash, righting her chair and helping her take a seat.

He took a seat across from her, and picked up the menu, focusing his eyes on it instead of looking at her. “What’s good here, Lorelai?” he asked, his tone casual.

“I’m a fan of the burger and fries, but really, everything Luke makes is awesome,” Lorelai answered automatically. “Tony! Is it really you?”

Tony looked up finally, his eyes twinkling. “It’s me. I’m Very Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, Jr,” he held out his hand across the table. “That’s my name. In case you were ever wondering. But you should keep calling me Tony. Everybody does.”

Woodenly, Lorelai reached over and grasped his proffered hand, shaking it, and smiling stupidly at him. “Lorelai Gilmore,” she muttered.

“I told you before, I’m not Jason Bourne. I remember stuff. You’re Lorelai Victoria Gilmore, owner of the Dragonfly Inn of Stars Hollow,” Tony’s smile widened.

Lorelai couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that. “How many times are you going to say that to me, Dragonfly? And how did you find out my middle name?”

“As many times as it takes you to remember?” Tony suggested. “Maybe _you’re_ Jason Bourne with the memory issues in this scenario. And I’m a federal agent, so finding out your middle name wasn’t that difficult to do.”

Lorelai laughed at that before concern welled up in her. “Are you all right?” she asked, looking him up and down anxiously. “You were in bad shape when they wheeled you out of my house.”

“I’m good,” Tony nodded, eyes serious now. “Had to do some PT on the shoulder, but it’s good as new.”

Lorelai nodded. “Yeah?”

“Yup,” he rotated his shoulder to demonstrate that it was fine.

“And your side?”

“Little bit of a scar, but I’m told chicks dig scars?” Tony replied flippantly.

“Really?”

“I don’t know. I’m _told_ that chicks dig scars. You tell me,” Tony’s look was definitely flirtatious.

“I’ll have to inform you of my conclusion after I have viewed the evidence,” Lorelai flirted back.

Tony laughed and turned his attention back to the menu, biting his lip as he looked through it.

“But you really _are_ OK?” Lorelai asked again, knowing that she sounded anxious but she couldn’t help it. Tony had taken a bullet for her.

“I’m fine, Lorelai,” Tony’s tone was gentle, as was his smile. “I really am. Good as new.”

“I wanted to call you but I didn’t have your number. Not even the stupid burner number that I bought for you,” Lorelai confessed it even though she hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

“Oh…?” Tony looked surprised and pleased at that. He pulled a card out of his breast pocket and handed it to her. “My number. Although, I have to warn you not to use the office number. Just the cell.”

“Why not?”

“It took me so long to get back here because after I got out of the hospital, we had to finish tying up all the loose ends of the case, and I had PT and a bunch of other loose ends to take care of.”

“What kind of loose ends?”

“Wrapping up the case. Bunch of administrative stuff. Subletting my apartment in DC.”

“What? Why are you subletting your apartment? In DC? Is that where you live?” Lorelai hadn’t even known what city Tony lived in before this.

“This case I was working on was really far reaching and it caused my Director to believe that NCIS needed to be more of a presence here in New England. There isn’t a permanent team stationed here. Just a tech who just calls DC for help if something happens.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, and as it turns out, my Director was happy with what I did with this case,” Lorelai saw that Tony was blushing as he said that.

“Oh yeah?”

Tony nodded, blush deepening. Lorelai wondered if he would ever tell her about the big case that he apparently broke. She wondered how pleased his Director was with him and why he was back at Stars Hollow.

“So why did that translate to you having to sublet your apartment?” Lorelai prodded.

“Well, you’re looking at the Team Lead for the newly formed permanent North East Region NCIS Team,” Tony shrugged, trying to act casual, but Lorelai could see from his flushed face that he was happy with this.

“Oh?” she asked, eyes wide now.

“Yeah.”

“And where would this newly formed team and the Team Lead be stationed?” Lorelai asked.

“At the sub base in Groton,” Tony responded, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “They recommended that I commute from Hartford or Providence, if I didn’t want to live in Groton, but Providence hits too close to home and even though Remington changed my life, I don’t really want to be that close to it?”

“And traffic to Hartford’ll kill ya,” Lorelai told him, nodding solemnly.

“That’s what I thought. And I thought, well, I know this town that isn’t too far from Groton and doesn’t have bad memories like Providence does. You know this town I’m talking about?”

Lorelai nodded.

“Yeah. This town has a quaint name – Stars Hollow – and it seems pretty idyllic, and safe. It’s is conveniently located in between Groton and Hartford, and would be a nice quiet place to live. Not a whole lot of daily traffic from here to Groton.”

“You’d totally be going against traffic from here to Groton at rush hour,” Lorelai agreed.

“Even better. And you know, I already have good memories of Stars Hollow. And I even have a couple of friends here,” Tony smiled and waved, making Lorelai turn her head. He was waving to Miss Patty, who was sitting with Babette at their usual table. Tony graced them with what looked to be an honestly fond smile.

“You do. There’s Hot Lips Houlahan over there,” Lorelai grinned and waved at the older woman too. “You’ll have to meet her sidekick, Babette.”

“Also, I’ve already met the owner of the local inn, Miss Kitty,” Tony said.

“You have,” Lorelai agreed. “She’s a key person to know here in Stars Hollow.”

“I agree,” Tony smiled. “I was hoping, if she had some free time, she could come with me sometime this weekend to go look at houses to rent in Stars Hollow?”

“Is that so?” Lorelai could feel her lips cracking into a wide smile, and her heart beat a staccato of hope and pleasure.

“Yeah. And maybe she’ll let me take her out to dinner? Not just as a thank you, even though lord knows I owe her my life. But, I was thinking, maybe dinner and a movie? Like a date?”

“I think she’d like that,” Lorelai smiled happily at him.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“What about your boss?” Lorelai could still hear Tony calling for his boss during his fevered rambles.

Tony gave her a puzzled look. “What about my boss?”

“He seems like someone you’re pretty loyal to. Devoted, even. And seems like he feels the same way about you. Just you know. Gruffer.”

Tony blushed and smiled. “He’s been like a father to me,” he told her softly, leaning towards her. “He’s not going anywhere. He’ll always be my boss but when we talked about this, he told me to follow my heart.”

“And it led you here?”

Tony’s smile was shy as he nodded.

“I can live with that,” Lorelai told him, leaning closer to him.

“Just kiss the man already, Lorelai!” Miss Patty yelled from her table, and Babette started hooting and hollering.

Lorelai laughed out loud, standing up and pulling Tony up by his expensive tie, kissing him right across the table in Luke’s diner. Tony’s lips were just as soft and just as amazing as she remembered. He opened his mouth and deepened the kiss and Lorelai forgot where they were, giving herself fully into the kiss. When they finally pulled apart, the patrons at Luke’s were all applauding them and Luke looked about ready to kick them both out for the PDA so Lorelai smiled and waved, while Tony blushed in an endearing way.

“I saved that man’s life!” Miss Patty could be heard proclaiming proudly.

“Yeah you did, Miss Patty!” Tony yelled back. “You’ll always be my Hot Lips Houlahan!” He threw some money on the table and held out his hand to Lorelai.

Lorelai grasped it and allowed herself to be pulled out of Luke’s. Tony pushed her into the nearest alleyway and kissed her thoroughly.

“Of all the gin joints in all the world, she walks into mine,” Lorelai whispered.

“How did I get cast as Ilsa?” Tony complained, which was a good question considering his erection was digging a bruise into Lorelai’s hip. He was no Ingrid Bergman. And Stars Hollow wasn’t exactly Casablanca. “And besides, unlike her, I came back. To stay. And without dragging a husband with me.”

“That’s true,” Lorelai drew him in and kissed him again. “You’re really staying?”

“I really am.”

“And you really want to date me?”

“I do. But I feel like I have to warn you, I’ve heard relationships based on intense experiences never work.”

“OK. We’ll have to base it on sex then,” Lorelai shot back.

“Whatever you say, ma’am,” Tony’s Keanu wasn’t terrible, and they both laughed at that.

Lorelai couldn’t even believe that Tony would be quoting _Speed_ to her at this time, but it warmed her heart and brightened her day.

“And we should build in a bunch of boring, relaxing, normal, date things into the relationship,” Tony whispered, giving her little biting kisses as he spoke. “In between the sex.”

“And stay away from boats and cruises?”

“Especially if you replace me with another guy and insist on calling him by my name.”

They laughed at that, until Tony started kissing her again. “Hello again, Lorelai Gilmore, owner of the Dragonfly Inn.”

This time, Lorelai couldn’t help but smile into the kiss. “Welcome home, Dragonfly.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is it! Ma cherie Red_Pink_Dots, I hope you enjoyed your story. I am again, so so sorry for how late the story is! Hopefully you liked it enough to offset its tardiness :D And as always, I cannot thank you enough for your support, friendship, love and OMG look at the fabulous, fabulous artwork! You know I love you, my Elton!!! <3 <3 <3
> 
> When I was writing this story, I listened obsessively to [Eternal Flame](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjr6_g1rtRM) by the Bangles, and during the editing process, I listened to Macy Gray's [I Try](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEQ0l_m3Xm0) which are both songs that were featured in the Gilmore Girls. I also did a lot of research to remind myself of a show that was a favorite of mine for a long time, and how to hopefully make it a believable story in which Lorelai and Tony would meet and fall in love. They are gorgeous together! I may also be movie-ed out now since writing this story made me pull out all the movie stops - Lorelai Gilmore meets Tony DiNozzo? Can the pop culture references ever stop? It was actually something I worried about a LOT because I am not as cool as either of these characters are! But hopefully what I ended up with is not too awful or out of character.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this! And huge huge kudos to Red_Pink_Dots for the gorgeous artwork!!! 
> 
> <3  
> -j  
> xoxo


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